Missouri Task Force One is an urban search and rescue team that responds to disasters around the country. There are just 28 such units nationwide, and the Missouri force is managed by the Boone County Fire Protection District. A Missouri Task Force One team recently returned to Columbia from Texas after helping with Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.
Intersection's Sara Shahriari sat down with two members from the task force, Terry Cassil and Danny Mueller, to hear about their experiences.
*Members of Missouri Task Force One traveled to Texas in late August to assist local authorities near Houston, Texas, following Hurricane Harvey. Other members of the task force later responded to Hurricane Irma in Puerto Rico.
*Task force volunteers include firefighters, medical staff and engineers.
*The team brings all its own equipment and enough supplies to be self-sustaining for 72 hours. The total equipment cache weighs more than 76,000 pounds.
*"There were still locals there that were walking around in the streets, it was like they were lost," Terry Cassil said of residents in a heavily affected Texas community. "And you just can't imagine the stress level that must be going on with those folks to number one just make it through the storm then secondly to look around and say everything you have is just gone."
Assistant producers for this show are Elena Rivera and Hannah Haynes.
