Guymon Swift Water Team Arrives In Staging For Hurricane Milton

Guymon Fire Department reports that the Swiftwater Team arrived in Liveoak, Florida Tuesday morning at 0930. In the past 24 hours, Florida officials changed the staging area from Orlando, Florida to Liveoak for pre-deployment reasons.
“Guymon Swiftwater Team is staged with other Oklahoma departments such as Lawton Fire Department and Coalgate Fire Department Swiftwater Teams”, said Fire Chief Grant Wadley. They will be preparing equipment and resting up for deployment as early as tomorrow night or possibly Thursday morning.
Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall in Florida late Wednesday night. Currently, it is a category 4 in the Gulf of Mexico. Winds 130mph+, rains of 10-15”, widespread flooding, and tornadoes all possible from this storm when it hits.
Other Oklahoma Swiftwater teams that are in Florida are Mayes County, Pryor Fire Department, Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) and Quapaw Nation. Tulsa and Oklahoma City Teams have been in North Carolina working on efforts from Hurricane Helene and maybe heading to Florida as well. All the teams deployed from Oklahoma are all part of past years work and training in this special rescue operations. Many of the teams including Guymon have worked together in the past on missions including but not limited to Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and Hurricane Ida in 2021.