Shoals Crews Deploy For Tropical Storm Efforts

LAUDERDALE COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) – As the threat of Tropical Storm Isaac intensifies, units from Northwest Alabama gear up to provide mutual aid.

“Under an agreement, we render assistance from virtually any county to any other county.  That is extremely important.  A lot of states have not gone to the trouble to have that done,” said George Graybryan, Lauderdale County EMA Director.

The Department of Homeland Security and Alabama EMA called for the region’s communications truck to mobilize first.

See Isaac’s latest position in our Interactive Hurricane Tracker on WHNT.com.

The truck will first head to a staging area in Clanton.  Then the truck will be tasked to wherever its needed to help throughout the state.

If high winds and rain down power lines and knock out electricity the rig is designed to restore first responder communications.

“Any time you have an emergency, you are going to have some challenges in your normal daily operations but even in an emergency, your normal calls are still going to go,” said Graybryan.  “You may have an increase in those besides what you area dealing with in an emergency.”

Other emergency resources from Northwest Alabama and the Shoals will also be on stand-by to deploy.