BROOKSVILLE - A team of six Hernando County sheriff's deputies headed to Mississippi in a motor home Wednesday morning to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The Sheriff's Office joins the Brooksville Emergency Response Team and the Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative in sending personnel to assist areas devastated by the powerful hurricane.
Sheriff Richard Nugent authorized a team - Lt. Craig Baxley, deputy coordinator Roger Butts and deputies Dustin Adkins, Joe Nelson, Jim Smith and Chris Croft - that left about 8:30 a.m. The motor home is needed so the deputies can be self-sufficient and not burden the agencies they are assisting, sheriff's spokeswoman Deputy Donna Black said. Traveling with them are three all-terrain vehicles and two Sheriff's Office trucks.
The deputies will be aiding Mississippi authorities for at least two weeks, Black said. If Hernando deputies are still needed after that, a relief team will be sent.
Seven members of the Brooksville Emergency Response Team departed Monday morning to assist hurricane victims; Tuesday, 13 Withlacoochee River Electric employees left to help out in Jackson, Ala.
The electrical workers will help the Clarke-Washington Electric Cooperative restore power in the Jackson area, Withlacoochee spokesman Ernie Holzhauer said. About 90 percent of that system's power lines - more than 3,900 miles of lines - was on the ground, Holzhauer said.
"Downed electric lines pose a hazard not just from electrocution, but they also can get tangled into automobiles and create problems with cleanup," he said. "But (our workers') essential job is to restore power."
