Beverly-Based Search-And-Rescue Responders Deploy For Hurricane Milton

BEVERLY, MA — Two more members of the Beverly-based Massachusetts Task Force 1 emergency response unit are joining 45 of their colleagues performing search-and-rescue and logistical aid in the South as a second catastrophic hurricane takes aim at the Florida Gulf Coast.

The two members deployed to Florida as part of an incident support team this week in advance of Hurricane Milton's landfall are in addition to the 45 members who have spent more than a week in rural North Carolina performing search-and-rescue operations for those trapped and isolated following Hurricane Helene's path of destruction.

At least 230 people were killed and hundreds remain missing across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which hit the northern Florida coast as a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds and dumped more than 20 inches of rain across a path of six Southern states.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)