Groups from Indiana, Kentucky sending help to Florida as state braces for Hurricane Ian

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Groups from both sides of the Ohio River are heading south as millions of Florida residents are being told to leave before Hurricane Ian makes landfall.

The storm, the first major hurricane of the season in the U.S., is expected to make landfall in Florida within the next 24 hours. The governors of Florida and Georgia have already declared states of emergency as they brace for winds and floods that knocked out power to the entirety of Cuba for an unknown period of time Tuesday night.

President Joe Biden said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is prepared to help, with 700 agents already on their way to the area. FEMA has also sent water, food and generators as some residents prepare their homes to wait out the hurricane.

Back in Kentuckiana, Duke Energy is preparing to send help to Florida from both Indiana and Kentucky.

The power company is sending nearly 10,000 line workers, tree professionals, damage assessment and support personnel to the state, where it has about two million customers.

LG&E and KU are sending more than 200 employees to Florida and Georgia to help restore any power outages. The crews are made up of line technicians, team leaders, safety specialists and additional support staff.

Louisville-based nonprofit WaterStep is also preparing to send resources south. Its manufacturing team has been busy assembling safe water tools to be ready for deployment.

WaterStep makes portable carts that use a generator to operate a treatment system, which leaders said can provide up to 10,000 gallons of safe water per day for drinking, bathing, cooking and cleaning. The carts were used after the recent flooding in eastern Kentucky.

Meanwhile, Indiana Task Force 1 is deploying to Florida to help with the response to Hurricane Ian. Fourty-five team members and six support personnel left the Hoosier state Tuesday morning. Several canines are also making the trop.

According to the task force's social media, the group will stage in Alabama and await orders. Task Force 1 is a FEMA group made up of first responders mostly from departments in central Indiana. It also recently spent time in eastern Kentucky to help flooding victims.

Hurricane Ian tore into western Cuba as a major hurricane on Tuesday, leaving millions of people without electricity, the Associated Press reported Tuesday night. The storm is on a collision course with Florida over warm Gulf waters amid expectations it would strengthen into a catastrophic Category 4 storm. Thousands of National Guard troops have already been deployed to the areas along Florida's Gulf coast.

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