A local team of firefighters shipped out to Hawaii Wednesday morning to help prepare for the hurricane ahead.
Hurricane Lane is a category four storm and is expected to bring forceful winds to the islands by Thursday.
The task force of 35 loaded nearly 55,000 pounds of equipment for their flight across the Pacific.
The team is led by Jim Gaboury, Deputy Fire Chief for San Diego Fire and Rescue.
They’re designed to be an all-risk task force, Gaboury said. They’ve been specially trained for floods, earthquakes, and other emergencies.
“Just like the fire service, we’re here to help people. And this is just a different way that we can help by going out, again, to another state, another area, and provide as much assistance as possible,” said Gaboury.
It’s similar to when local firefighters go off to battle large wildfires across the state, according to Gaboury.
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The task force will be stationed in Kauai, where the islands are in a state of emergency.
It’s not clear where the storm will hit, so the team’s main goal is to provide service and aid where they can.
Many fear for the damage to come. The strongest storm to ever hit the islands in recorded history was Hurricane Iniki in 1992, which left six dead and a clean-up cost of about $5 billion.
Typically task forces are deployed for two to three weeks at a time.
