North Texas groups helping with Hurricane Ian recovery efforts in Florida

ARLINGTON, Texas - People and equipment from North Texas are heading to Florida to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. That includes teams of paramedics and the Texas Baptist Men.

Many of the EMTs who are pitching in to help say they got into the business for this very reason – to be able to help people in their time of need.

Based on the damage and devastation in Florida brought on by Hurricane Ian, there’s no doubt they will be hard at work for some time.

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A caravan of 10 ambulances from American Medical Response left North Texas overnight enroute to southwest Florida. The group should arrive in hurricane-ravaged zones sometime this weekend. 

North Texas organizations arrive in Florida to help with Hurricane Ian recovery efforts

They don’t have a specific assignment just yet, but a spokesman said the volunteers will be doing whatever is requested such as transporting people from disaster areas to safer locations.

"If you ask most of our volunteers, they would say this is really why they got into emergency medical services to truly make a difference and impact their neighbors wherever they are in their time of need. And in doing so they find great satisfaction from doing that and just to be a small part of it we do as well," said Peter Como, with American Medical Response in Arlington.

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Also on Friday, about 50-70 volunteers with the Texas Baptist Men will depart North Texas for southwest Florida. 

They’re bringing their mobile kitchen, which can feed up to 9,000 people per day. They’ll also have chainsaw teams to help with debris removal and a recovery unit to assist with cleaning out damaged homes.

The group plans to be in Florida for about three to four weeks. But because the work is so difficult, TBM will rotate its crews on a weekly basis.