OHIO — As southern states prepare for the Hurricane Ian to make landfall, Ohio Task Force 1 is ready to help.
The Ohio Task Force 1 is an elite search and rescue team for the state and the entire nation. It is filled with firefighters, private citizens and local businesses.
Jack Reall, the task force leader, explained what he thinks they will be doing to help out with Ian.
“Accomplish whatever mission they want. I assume it’s going to be like — initially, it’ll be search and rescue of people who are in immediate danger,” he said.
The team is currently in Alabama waiting to hear where they will be dispatched to help, so for now they are just preparing. Reall said what they are doing to prepare.
“We’re doing training on water safety, on bleeding injuries and things like that just so we’re a little bit more up to date on that. We’re doing a lot of training on our GPS system that we use to mark our locations and do damage assessment stuff. We’re going through our equipment cache, both personal and our task force equipment to make sure everything is up and operational,” he said.
The team’s most recent mission was helping out with the Kentucky floods. Reall explained they evaluate each mission after it’s over.
“I think that every time we go out the door we come back and we look at things that we can make better. Both from a training and operational perspective, but also from a personal and professional perspective,” he said.
Reall explained that he thinks of his job as a way to pay it forward.
“We have the ability to come down here and help them and kind of help them get into a better place after a disaster like this and we’re doing it so that when something happens back home they’re going to come and help us and help our families,” he said.
His first mission was at the World Trade Center on 9/11, which he said is something that he thinks about everyday. He hopes to continue helping people for as long as he’s able to.
