Cary swift water rescue team ready to respond to Dorian

State and local officials say lessons learned from Florence and from Hurricane Matthew in 2016 have led them to prepare for all possibilities during a natural disaster.

The 12-member Cary team loaded three boats and enough supplies for 10 days, including their own housing, on three trucks and left Tuesday for Kinston to be in place near the coast for any water rescues that may be required during and after the storm.

"Several teams are deploying down east ahead of the storm just to get preparations taken care of, to learn the areas and be ready when the storm hits so we can act at a moment's notice," Capt. Chad Thomason said. "We'll go out to flash flood areas to rescue people from vehicles or houses that are just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

This same team was deployed during Florence, and Thomason said they learned a lot of lessons and will apply those going forward.

But for John Miller, this will be his first deployment.

"I'm just looking forward to it, being of help wherever we can be of help," Miller said. "Hopefully, nobody really needs us, but if we do [perform a rescue], we're ready to go an excited to help."

The team trains throughout the year for water rescues, even if they're seldom needed.

“It’s just like us responding to a fire call," Thomason said. "We never want to go to a fire or a wreck or any other call, but we know the need is there, so we train for it, we prepare for it. We hope we’re going to take this [gear] to Kinston and hang out for a couple days and come home."