LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A team of 17 Louisville-area firefighters packed up Monday to head south, taking boats and UTVs, along with their hours of specialized training to Florida to help residents withstand Hurricane Milton.

The team is made of members from area fire departments, including Anchorage-Middletown, Pleasure Ridge Park, Fern Creek and Okolona.

"We're sending the right people to do some incredibly difficult work," Jordan Yuodis, spokesperson for the Anchorage-Middletown Fire Department, said Monday. 

Although these firefighters work in separate parts of Jefferson County, they're all part of a special operations group that comes together regularly for technical rescue training.

This week, they'll use that knowledge as they held with rescue efforts.

"The rules of engagement for this is we have to be self-sufficient for 72 hours," said Capt. Travis Bell, task force commander for the group. "... that's food, that's water, that's fuel, that's machines, that's boats, that's everything for us to operate completely by ourselves in a particular area."

Bell said the team's direct role is "immediate rescue" of people in harm's way.

"If that means cutting trees to clear roads to get to people, if that means flooded roadways and the boats come into play, obviously the UTVs, any of that stuff, people need help," he said. "Our role is to get to them as fast as possible and then render aid or move them from the situation."

Milton rapidly strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane Monday in the Gulf of Mexico on a path toward Florida, threatening a dangerous storm surge in Tampa Bay, leading to evacuation orders and long gas lines, and lending more urgency to the cleanup from Hurricane Helene, which swamped the same stretch of coastline less than two weeks ago.

The National Hurricane Center forecasts a slight weakening before landfall in Florida. The last hurricane to be a Category 5 at landfall in the mainland U.S. was Michael in 2018.

Hurricane Milton

This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration taken at 11:36pm ET on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, shows Hurricane Milton. (NOAA via AP)

"This is the real deal here with Milton," Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said at a news conference. "If you want to take on Mother Nature, she wins 100% of the time."

Milton's intensification in wind speed by 92 mph in 24 hours trails only those of Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and Hurricane Felix in 2007. One reason Milton strengthened so rapidly is its small size, with a "pinhole eye," just like Wilma's, said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

Forecasters warned of a possible 8- to 12-foot storm surge in Tampa Bay and said flash and river flooding could result from 5 to 10 inches of rain in mainland Florida and the Keys, with as much as 15 inches in places.

The Louisville team will start its work in Tallahassee then go south of Orlando and move from there depending on where they're called. Members of the team have experienced severe weather before. Bell answered the call for help during Hurricane Katrina nearly two decades ago. Ahead of Milton, he said they're prepared for basically anything they could come across in a flood.

The Tampa Bay area is still rebounding from Helene and its powerful surge. Twelve people died — with more than 200 deaths attributed to the storm nationwide — with the worst damage along a string of barrier islands from St. Petersburg to Clearwater.

Milton's approach stirred memories of 2017's Hurricane Irma, when about 7 million people were urged to evacuate Florida in an exodus that jammed freeways and clogged gas stations. Some people who left vowed never to evacuate again.

By Monday morning, some gas stations in the Tampa area had already run out of gas. Fuel continued to arrive in Florida, and the state had amassed hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel, with much more on the way, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.

It has been two decades since so many storms crisscrossed Florida in such a short period of time. In 2004, an unprecedented five storms struck Florida within six weeks, including three hurricanes that pummeled central Florida.

Aside from this team of multiple fire departments from Jefferson County going to assist, LG&E said it plans to help out as well. A spokesperson said LG&E and KU plan to send 150 employees and contract workers to the Florida area Tuesday morning. Those crews will stage north of the hurricane and then head to the affected areas to help restore power.

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