Team Rubicon has sent a route clearance team to the Mobile, AL, area to prepare for Hurricane Helene, which is expected to make landfall along Florida’s Big Bend Coast on Thursday, September 26. Comprising sawyers and heavy equipment operators, the volunteer route clearance team will push into the affected areas of Florida immediately after the storm passes to clear roads for emergency response vehicles and other first responders.
Hurricane Helene is expected to arrive in Florida as a major hurricane—a Category 3, 4, or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale—at landfall. Hurricane Idalia arrived in 2023 as a Category 3 Hurricane—the third-strongest hurricane to affect the Big Bend region of Florida in recorded history—with estimated maximum sustained winds of 115 mph that damaged buildings, trees, peanut and cotton crops, infrastructure, irrigation rigs, aquaculture, and livestock. Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 4 Hurricane with maximum wind speeds of 149 mph in 2022. The catastrophic storm surge and wind left a huge swath of complete destruction in southwestern Florida.
In addition to the route clearance team, Team Rubicon will also be launching three reconnaissance teams in Florida on Friday to work with local municipalities to identify areas of most need and determine how Team Rubicon can help.
When Team Rubicon pushes into Florida this week, it will be the third time in as many years that its disaster relief volunteers have provided post-hurricane road clearance in the area. Route clearance teams deployed to the Big Bend region in 2023 in response to Hurricane Idalia, and to Southwestern Florida in 2022 after Hurricane Ian. Both resulted in major disaster relief operations for the veteran-led nonprofit.
