HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- Captain Mark Cumashot usually spends his days working for the Henrico County Fire Department, but since two weekends ago, he's been with Task Force Two in Florida, witnessing some of the worst destruction he's ever seen.
"I think Florida has a challenge in front of them," Cumashot said. "It's going to take several months just for the cleanup process and could easily take a year plus to feel a sense of normalcy back in some of these areas."
Cumashot is in Florida with Virginia Task Force Two, an urban search and rescue team.
The team started in Miami where they rode out Hurricane Ian, feeling only tropical storm effects before they moved into position as the hurricane moved up the west coast of Florida.
They first deployed to the coastal areas of Englewood and Charlotte County, setting up their base in the library.
"Going back to barrier islands to confirm the accountability of all citizens as well as the hard-hit areas of the modular home parks that are down there. They saw significant damage," Cumashot said.
On Saturday, the team moved south to Fort Myers where Cumashot offered compassion to his other deployments, including the Surfside Collapse and Hurricane Sandy.
"Fort Myers ranks up there with some of the worst damage I've seen," Cumashot said.
He said that the team expects to stay for a few more days, doing what is called primary and secondary searches to help local authorities find people who are still unaccounted for.
"We find a lot of folks that might have had one person make contact with them. But some, we could be the first ones there. I know we've had some of those interactions. Definitely a sense of relief," Cumashot said.
Cumashot said that while they usually deploy for two weeks, he anticipates the stay could be longer considering the degree of the damage. However, he said this possibility is something that he and the rest of the task force are up for.
"We're going to, willing to help the localities as much as we can," Cumashot said.
He said that along with the search for people, they are also using their phones to upload videos and pictures of the damage they are seeing. These photos and videos are sent back to a database to give leaders a better idea of where the worst hit spots are and where they should focus their relief efforts.
