LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Fire Departments around the country, like Louisville's Anchorage-Middletown Fire & EMS, have crews in Florida waiting to be deployed.
They are there to assist those who could lose everything after Hurricane Milton makes landfall Wednesday evening.
The hurricane is expected to hit Florida's coastline as a category 3.
Jordan Yuodis with Anchorage-Middletown fire has been in Tampa since Tuesday, and said houses are boarded up and the streets are empty.
"The Tampa metro area is expected to get [hit] pretty good," Yuodis said.
There is also a local crew in Live Oak, Florida, which is 2.5 hours north of Tampa.
"Our crews that are staged in Live Oak, they spent most of the morning topping off with fuel, checking their equipment, checking their supplies, making sure they're good to go," Yuodis said.
He added that conditions will look very different in the next 24 hours and he and his crews plan to stay to help those who could be stranded.
While on Zoom with WHAS11 News Wednesday afternoon, he showed rainy and windy conditions in Tampa.
"When it comes to a disaster like this," Yuodis said, "It doesn't matter if you're from Texas or Kentucky, we're all one team with one mission. So that'll show in the next several days. You know, our crews will work 14 or 16, hour days, if not longer, if need be. We'll do whatever it takes."
He's expected to be there for at least 10 days. He said after that he'll come home and depending on the severity of the aftermath, a new fresh group of volunteers will go back.
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