By David Fleet
Editor
Groveland Twp.- There are many overpasses that span U.S. 23 between Fenton and the Ohio boarder en route to Florida.
Steve McGee will likely never forget them.
“Fire trucks, police cars and just people were on the bridges as we drove under,” he said. “It was just unreal, how they knew we were coming by—but they came out. The support was very moving.”
The local support was for McGee along with a team of 45 from the Michigan Task Force 1 that packed up Sept. 10 from the new township mobilization center and headed south on an 14 day mission to assist with the aftermath of Hurricane Irma which made landfall Sept. 10 over Cudjoe Key in the Florida Keys.
“The MTF1 team includes about 150 professionals and we had a request for some our resources,” said McGee. “Our convoy included 18 vehicles and personnel from many Michigan cities.”
The MTF1 team includes firefighters, law enforcement, public health, public works, emergency management personal, structural engineers, heavy equipment operators, and disaster certified doctors to name a few. The MTF1 warehouse, which opened in August is located on Grange Hall Road near I-75 and is home to supplies and equipment used in the event of a major catastrophe including food supplies for workers, logistics, support vehicles, boats for surface water rescue, medical supplies, generators, ATVs, and vans to move the teams statewide.
“We stopped in Chattanooga, Tenn. the first day,” he said. “We drove south through the tropical storm in Georgia. It was just very intense and slow going—especially with the big trucks. and arrived in Jacksonville, Fla. on Tuesday afternoon.”
The MTF1 teams are funded by state governments and designed to streamline emergency and fire services resources. In addition, teams coordinates large scale events such as major fires, train derailments, tornadoes, wildfires, domestic or foreign terrorism and other events that may overwhelm local resources.

The staging area in Jacksonville was a very large sports complex. The MTF1 joined forces with the Florida National Guard, the Tennessee Task Force 2 and the Louisiana Task Force 1—a total of about 300 professionals to assist with residents of Florida impacted by the hurricane.
“In the morning we had training to deal with the hurricane victims,” he said. “There are many hazards after a hurricane hits—especially in Florida due to the climate. There are spiders, snakes, alligators to deal with, not to mention the biohazards of possible water rescues. Consider the fact much of the water from the flooding area could be icontaminated with oil or some other toxic material. We came prepared with four boats for search and rescue.”
About noon on Tuesday the MTF1 team was notified they were not going to be deployed and could return home.
“Many of the areas in Florida still did not have power when we left,” he said. “However, there was enough help and the hurricane damage was not as bad as first thought. Several other teams were deployed soon after the storm passed through so they were already in some of the areas hit hard.”
The team returned home to Groveland Township on Thursday.
“All went well,” said McGee. “We had a few flat tires on the vehicles on the way home. But we carry replacement tires and equipment to change the tires. The support was incredible on the way down and return. A local businessman in Holly stopped out to the warehouse just before we left with $450 cash and said, ‘I want to buy the whole team breakfast. It was just amazing.”