Two local chiefs help relief effort

SUFFOLK COUNTY, New York (WDTN) - They are the kind of folks who rush in as soon as the waters rush out, but they tell 2 NEWS they have a lot of work ahead of them.

At the center of the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy in Suffolk County New York will be Ohio's Incident Management Team.

The job of its 11 members is to coordinate all the work going on.

Among the team members are two Miami Valley police chiefs, Russ Whitman from Franklin and Jeff Kruithoff from Springboro.

They were on their way to New York Wednesday.

The team's coordinator David Calderone is already on the ground there.

He says it's going to take a while to get that area back on its feet again.

"They're going to be feeling this for months," Calderone says. "In some circumstances this county is still recovering from the effects of Irene last year and this is much worse than that."

The Ohio IMT will be in New York for 14 days, although its deployment could be shortened or extended if needed.