When Hurricane Ian ripped through Florida in late September 2022, it left a devastating swath of destruction in its wake. For the people of Fort Myers, the storm, which had winds just shy of a category 5 hurricane, destroyed everything from their houses to cars and boats and left many trapped or stranded. That’s where the Emergency Road Access Team (ERAT) of Jacksonville, Florida, came in.

Knowing the ins and outs of the machines is an essential part of what makes ERAT members able to think on their feet. One situation that helped give them the stick time that was useful during Ian was the partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, in June 2021. The incident left 97 dead and masses of rubble to sift through in rescue and recovery efforts. Kevin Guthrie, Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, worked with ERAT and its Cat^® dealer, Ring Power Corporation, to purchase the skid steers the team used to aid with this recovery.

The recovery was a unique situation the participating ERAT members had never experienced before.  The goal was to respectfully recover remains and personal items of the people trapped in the rubble.

“We went down there for the skid steer mission in the middle of July and didn’t come home until October 5th,” Garrett Powers, Ladder 1 lead in ERAT, notes. “In that time, we moved 62,000 cubic yards of material from the building collapse. We used sifting buckets to go through it, and police walked the lines as we sifted. We found $2.2 million worth of gold, cash, and family heirlooms. We went through 5 sets of grader blades and had almost 500 hours on each of these machines.”

With any emergency response effort, the images and videos in the news paint only a partial picture of what it’s like on the ground.

“You don’t really understand it until you’re there,” Zack notes.  “When we got to Ft. Myers Beach in the middle of the night, we stepped out of the machines to size things up; it was dead quiet. All you could hear was the swinging of AC units from high-rises, metal creaking, stuff being blown across the sand. Then you could hear the cries for help.  There’s a lot more of a toll that these incidents take on both citizens and rescue teams.”

The harrowing conditions only make the jobs of the members of ERAT that much more important.

“People don’t realize how much devastation there is, and to be able to find a picture of their family or a class ring, something that was near and dear to them, is something people don’t think about,” says Garrett. “To try and get some of this stuff back and let people come in and gather their things is huge.”

It’s the fact that they’re often the first able to render this type of aid that makes what ERAT does all worthwhile.

“These people lost loved ones in front of their eyes, and the first people they saw were the ERAT team,” Zack comments. “We gave them hope, and they knew rescue was on the way. That made a huge difference in their lives and plays back into the importance of allowing early access [to these areas]. When they tear up just because we’re there and there quickly, it makes it worth it.”