MADISON COUNTY, Fla. — Luckily, Hurricane Idalia's impact to the First Coast was minimal. But other Florida communities weren't so lucky. It's cleanup time for other areas of the state.
One of the areas at the center of the storm was Madison County, in the north central region of the state. Proteus Protective Services, a Jacksonville-based security agency, disaster response, and support team is there with its mobile command center to support volunteers helping cleanup.
"It is currently fully stocked with everything from fuel to humanitarian type goods, we have a pallet of water on board. We have six army style cots in there, it has an HVAC unit installed, an onboard generator plus two additional portable generators," Deputy Director Sean Saunders said.
Saunders says the trailer will be used as a base camp for a crew coming from Texas for the next week.
"The company out of Texas, its SOML, 'So Others May Live.' It is run by two gentlemen, Travis Sike and Roger Richards they are both retired navy seal rescue swimmers, " Saunders explained. "The area they are going into currently has no power, no running water at this time, downed trees throughout the route. So for them to go in there, to be self sufficient, this trailer is designed to support them for an extended period."
Saunders says they hope the command center will be a resource to the community. He says it can deploy anywhere on the East Coast in 48 hours.
"Floridians are very resilient people. We find it important to help our neighbors. It is not just the people of Jacksonville, it's not just the people of Orlando that we service, it's all of Florida. Whenever a particular part of the state is affected by a natural disaster or a tragedy, our goal is to provide assistance and resources to those affected areas," Saunders said.
The company says this is the first natural disaster where they are using the trailer. Saunders says he's looking to add more mobile command centers to its fleet, especially being in the middle of hurricane season, it will give them the opportunity to help more than one affected area if needed.