AUSTIN (KXAN) — Firefighters from the Austin Fire Department continue to help with rescue efforts in North Carolina. As Florence keeps churning out rain, flooding is a major concern.
“They were working for many hours doing a bunch of rescues right up until one in the morning,” said Division Chief Palmer Buck. “They had to come back in because of the wind speeds were about 50 mph as the storm was coming ashore.”
Division Chief Buck has been in touch with the crews and said North Carolina is starting to look like Houston during Hurricane Harvey.
“It is eerily similar to how Harvey was, where days — three days, four days, five days later we were having renewed flooding events and they’re gonna continue to have that.”
In the next 24 to 48 hours the department could send another team that would focus on searching flooded neighborhoods as the water goes down.
AFD also deployed another group to South Texas including a helicopter rescue swimmer. The team returned back to Austin Sunday afternoon.
