Tennessee Task Force One deploys for Florida ahead of Irma

On September 9, 2017, emergency task forces prepared for deployment to assist areas in the path of Hurricane Irma. A total of 320 task force members from Tennessee, Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania were mobilized to support Florida utilities ahead of the storm.

Although the exact landfall location of the hurricane in the United States remained uncertain, response teams were being staged to report quickly to wherever assistance was required. An official named Wolf reported at the time that positioning personnel in Alabama would allow for rapid deployment. Meanwhile, the Phoenix Fire Department announced that Arizona Task Force One was among the teams being positioned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Albany, Georgia, for Irma response duties.

These deployments followed intensive regional disaster response efforts in Texas after Hurricane Harvey. Nebraska Task Force 1 members were preparing to leave Texas after completing rescue missions, where personnel had worked for twelve days.