VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Members of the Virginia Beach-based Virginia Task Force 2 (VATF-2) are heading to Portsmouth, New Hampshire ahead of Hurricane Lee, which is heading toward a brushing of New England later this week.
The City of Virginia Beach said 14 members of VATF-2 left on Wednesday night and will meet up with the FEMA Incident Support Team in New Hampshire on Thursday afternoon to assist local agencies with requests for assistance as needed.
VATF-2 is one of 28 FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Teams across the country. The Virginia Beach Fire Department is VATF-2's sponsoring agency, which has conducted search and rescue operations in the aftermath of numerous disasters.
This is the task force's second trip to the northeast in recent months. In July, members were deployed to Vermont in response to catastrophic flooding in the state. Members of VATF-2 also were sent to Florida late last month to assist in search and rescue efforts following the landfall of Hurricane Idalia.