BCSO headed to Charlotte County to assist local first responders

BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - Bay County Sheriff’s deputies are packed up and ready to hit the ground running in Southwest Florida.

BCSO said it received its assignment on Thursday. Deputies will be going to Charlotte County, which is an area that was hit hard by Hurricane Ian.

“You can’t ask a man or woman to go out and work and work hard when they are worried about their family it is just not possible. So we go to help them. We will do security at a distribution site for food and water and ice so we will be security at a shelter. Whatever they need, we do it,” Ruth Corley, BCSO Public Information Officer, said.

Sheriff Tommy Ford will welcome the deputies when they arrive. He is already on the ground in Punta Gorda, working as a chairman for the Florida Sheriff’s Task Force.

But these deputies will be there to help out the local first responders who have been working around the clock because they too need a break to check on loved ones and their homes.

“If they have a home to go to they can sleep. If they have flood waters to clean up or some debris they can make a path to their door they have time to do it and they have time to help their family,” Corley said.

Plus deputies are bringing their own housing, food, and more so they don’t take away any resources from locals who need them.

“We’ll have everything we need. We have a mobile kitchen, that field kitchen that we can roll out and we have plenty of food and water. Whatever we need we are bringing with us so that we can get to work,” Corley said.

This trip down south is bittersweet as these deputies are paying it back to the first responders, who came to the panhandle four years ago during Hurricane Michae. To help them in a time of need.

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