More Tennessee Teams Deploy for Hurricane Dorian’s mid-Atlantic Coast Impact

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The State of Tennessee is sending critical emergency management and medical assistance to the Carolinas today and tomorrow in preparation for Hurricane Dorian’s coastal impact.

A 30-member nurse strike team from the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) leaves today for Raleigh, North Carolina, to provide medical care to Hurricane Dorian survivors.  The team includes 25 nurses and five emergency response coordinators (ERC) from TDH locations across the state. ERCs will provide logistical and communication support to allow the nurses to focus on nursing.

A five-person incident management team (IMT) will deploy Friday to Columbia, South Carolina to assist local and state logistics and response efforts.  The IMT includes four staff members from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) and one emergency manager from Moore County.

These teams join the 129 ambulance, swift-water rescue, and emergency management personnel who deployed into the southeast last weekend and earlier this week to support emergency response efforts for Hurricane Dorian.

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) is coordinating Tennessee’s Hurricane Dorian deployments through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), the nation’s state-to-state mutual aid system.

Hurricane Dorian is off Florida’s Atlantic coast, moving north and is a Category 3 hurricane with 115 mph maximum sustained winds.  Dorian spent 48 hours over the Bahamas as a Category 5 hurricane, killing 21 people and destroying thousands of homes and businesses.

About the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency: TEMA’s mission is to coordinate preparedness, response and recovery from man-made, natural and technological hazards in a professional and efficient manner in concert with our stakeholders. Follow TEMA on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and, at www.tn.gov/tema.