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New York Task Force 1 heads to Houston

Posted at 5:08 PM, Aug 29, 2017
and last updated 2017-08-29 18:08:12-04

New York Task Force 1 is making the more than 1,600-mile journey to the Houston area. 

They stopped at the Brazos County Expo Center in Bryan late Monday night.

Tuesday afternoon they hit the road again to just south of Houston. 

Michael Kenny, the New York Task Force 1 Leader, has been with the task force for 14 years. 

He brought his "lucky jacket" with him for this deployment. 

"This is one of my older jackets," Kenny said while picking the jacket up. "It's been on multiple deployments. Sort of my lucky jacket. It's been to Katrina, Haiti, Matthew, a few other deployments."

New York Task Force 1 is made up of eighty police officers and firefighters from New York City. 

"We're here to support the Texas Department of Emergency Management we're here to help the locals," Kenny said. 

They loaded up boats, rescue equipment, dry suits and food.

"Our mission is to come here and do as many evacuations and rescues that need to be made. That's our mission," Kenny said. 

The team said they are prepared for what they might face. 

"We train for this all the time. We have a great robust water capability and we are surrounded by water. Most of our city is islands. So we're pretty good at it," Kenny said. 

Their main goal is saving as many people as they can.

"Get them out and get them to shelter," Kenny said. 

Their mission lasts for for 14 days.

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