VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY/AP) — Virginia Task Force 2 has deployed nine members to help following a 10-day string of earthquakes in Puerto Rico.
The series of quakes finished with a powerful magnitude 6.4 tremor Tuesday that killed one and injured at least nine others.
The nine members of Virginia Task Force 2 are part of the Incident Support Team, which works with Command and Control to coordinate the allocation of the Urban Safe and Rescue Resources, said Art Kohn, public information officer for the Virginia Beach Fire Department.
The IST will work the USAR Type 3 team from Florida.
They were in the process of boarding a flight at Norfolk International Airport around 10:45 a.m. Wednesday.
Once damage assessments in Puerto Rico are complete, Virginia Task Force 2 could be mobilized, but “thus far though it does not appear that they will be needed,” Kohn said.
Puerto Rico’s governor, Wanda Vásquez, declared a state of emergency and activated the territory’s National Guard. She said about 300,000 households were without running water late Tuesday.
Several hundred people were in shelters.
