Texas A&M: Texas A&M Team On Standby For Hurricane Ian Recovery Efforts

Robin Murphy, professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, and her team from the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue are ready to support Florida’s urban search and rescue efforts after Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwestern Florida as a Category 4 storm on Wednesday, Sept. 28.

The Texas A&M group is part of a 16-person team that includes researchers from the Florida State University Center for Disaster Risk Policy and first responders from Miami-Dade County and Tallahassee County.

Murphy and her team have deployed ground, aerial and marine robots to nearly 30 disasters in five countries, including Hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Harvey (2017).

In addition, Texas A&M Task Force 1 has been deployed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist with recovery efforts. Sponsored by the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, the task force is one of 28 federal teams under FEMA’s National Urban Search and Rescue System.