ROANOKE, Va. – Roanoke Fire-EMS crews prepared Friday for anything and everything in between, and in the meantime, helped with the recovery efforts in Franklin County.
City crews are part of the Roanoke Valley Regional Heavy Technical Team. According to Roanoke fire chief David Hoback, about 17 people from the city, Roanoke County and Salem were deployed to Franklin County after the tornado this morning.
Crews did a search along what they say is about a 2-mile path the tornado took.
"They're doing a search based on the area that they've been assigned and making sure that the buildings that have been destroyed," Hoback said. "There's nobody in them and that they're also secure of hazards, electrical, gas, things of that nature so that we don't have any problems."
Hoback says they've backfilled their staffing, so even though they have crews assisting in Franklin County, there's no shortage of people ready to go Roanoke.
Swift water teams are standing by in the event any water rescues are made necessary because of flooding.