[PAO] FW: [SCWG] [ICP] SC Flood Response Overview - Thursday

Fri Oct 9 08:38:15 CDT 2015

ALCON:

I have just completed a phone call with SC Wing Commander, Col Francis 
Smith, and he as given permission to share this overview of the 
situation in South Carolina, their efforts and the support they are 
receiving throughout this disaster relief effort.  Please feel free to 
share with your fellow units and members.

Karen L. Copenhaver, Lt Col, CAP
Deputy Director, Public Affairs
Middle East Region
276-783-8022

Civil Air Patrol, U.S. Air Force Auxiliary

http://GoCivilAirPatrol.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------

*From:*Francis Smith, Col, CAP SCWG/CC [mailto:fhsmith at scwgcap.org]
*Sent:* Thursday, October 08, 2015 7:28 PM
*To:* scwg at scwgcap.org; scwg-cc at scwgcap.org
*Cc:* Maj Gen Joe Vazquez; Brig Gen Larry Myrick; John Knowles; Col 
Dennis Barron; Jay Langley; Col David Crawford; Richard Greenwood; Lt 
Col Andrea Van Buren; Boykin Roseborough; Larry Ragland; icp; 
mark.obrien.3 at us.af.mil; losc at bellsouth.net; opscenter at capnhq.gov
*Subject:* [SCWG] [ICP] SC Flood Response Overview - Thursday

Good evening, everyone.

Another good day working for the good citizens of the Palmetto State. 
  At the moment, we have flown approximately 20 sorties and 46 hours.

The taskings for today were more focused.  Over the last two days, we 
have flown a LOT of get out there and see whats happening type 
sorties.  With all of the grids we flew, we had a lot more activity in 
the sky yesterday.

Were still prominent today, but flew about half of the hours because 
the areas of concern are now more specifically identified.  The 
Georgetown area is of major concern starting right away, as floodwaters 
are cresting further and further downstream.

*Be clear on this:*  we are not responding to a disaster that has 
occurred.  We are responding to a disaster that is still in progress. 
  Major flooding is still occurring and will continue to occur through 
the weekend.  This is even more dangerous because people are seeing the 
blue skies and assuming that all is okay.  This is resulting in many, 
many stranded people.

Today CAP performed Impact Assessment and SAR flights over the most 
affected rivers and in flood prone areas.  Unfortunately, most of the 
flood prone areas are very large in the flatlands, and water is 
literally running over the ground from river to river in some areas.  We 
have no real way of knowing if we saved lives today, but Im betting we 
did.  CAP aircraft identified a number of flooded and isolated areas, 
noted where there were vehicles in distress, located two unsafe bridges 
that had no law enforcement or other barricades, and provided hundreds 
more in the way of IA photos.  We also flew roads in and out of 
Georgetown helping SCEMD folks plan for evacuations and areas that are 
likely to flood and thus close roads needed for those evacuations.  We 
are again getting real time information to the EOC from the air and help 
is getting to the right places.

We had three new (in the original wrapper) camera systems arrive from 
the NOC today.  These are small Garmin cameras that attach to a wing 
strut and take straight down photos on a particular flight profile. 
  Well be taking a look at the first sortie using those cameras tonight 
- we have high hopes but we are the test case for sure.  If we had good 
success, well be flying all three of them tomorrow.

Today, we flew aircraft from SC, NC, VA, and MD wings, with thanks to 
the two aircrews from Georgia that were ready to come at a moments 
notice.  This is allowing our aircrews and mission base staff to be 
rotated out a bit for some badly needed and well earned rest.  We 
appreciate you, and hopefully well see you in the next few days.  Our 
mission base staff was augmented by a GA-8 and several van-loads of 
cadets from Lowcountry, Columbia, and Lexington, as well as senior staff 
from North Carolina and Maryland.  We set up a debriefing section in the 
main meeting room at SC Wing HQ, and have support personnel in that 
section to help get WMIRS populated with complete and meaningful 
debriefing information.  That information is also being cross-decked 
quickly to the EOC.  We are taking advantage of our fiber connection to 
the internet here to upload photos to FEMA at rates about 30 times 
faster than typical high-speed internet.

We are very fortunate to have had donations or steep discounts from 
vendors who have brought us food, water, and soft drinks.  We are well 
cared for here!

Tomorrow we will be flying affected and likely affected roads, possibly 
with the new camera system, both early and late in the day.  We also 
expect to receive a long list of photo targets (spot targets) along 4 or 
5 of the affected rivers.  We wont receive those until in the morning, 
but that list will be completed in the morning and repeated in the 
afternoon for comparison purposes.  We wont be launching the majority 
of our aircraft (or dont expect to) until after 9am, which is a welcome 
short break.

Again, so very blessed to have had great assistance from everyone 
involved.  Thank you all for your continued efforts. *You are making a 
difference.*

*Col**Francis H. Smith, Jr., CAP*

South Carolina Wing Commander

(W)

803.490.0180

(C)

803.261.4981

U.S.Air Force Auxiliary

GoCivilAirPatrol.com <http://GoCivilAirPatrol.com>

scwgcap.org <http://scwgcap.org>

<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Civil-Air-Patrol/107647995924164><https://www.flickr.com/photos/civilairpatrol/sets/>

> On Oct 6, 2015, at 10:17 PM, Francis Smith, Col, CAP SCWG/CC 
> <fhsmith at scwgcap.org <mailto:fhsmith at scwgcap.org>> wrote:
>
> SC Wing and friends:
>
> Today the Civil Air Patrol really got spun up as part of the SAR and 
> disaster relief effort in South Carolina.  The weather was great in 
> some areas, good enough in others, and unfortunately almost good 
> enough in a few places.  Our priority has been on flying and 
> identifying locations that need or will shortly need SAR assets and 
> getting rescue to those locations.  Right behind that, and sometimes 
> simultaneously with that, we provided impact assessment reports and 
> photography.  Even now, there are CAP members that are compiling 
> reports and continuing to plan for the next operational periods. 
>  Well kick off again early in the morning.
>
> In the roundest of numbers, we had approximately 100 personnel 
> involved, flew 14 aircraft, and logged about 85 hours in the air 
> today.  We expect similar numbers tomorrow.  We have received all of 
> our taskings and have planned and sorted those amongst several 
> aircrew.  Kudos to everyone involved in our operations from the 
> mission base staff to the aircrews to the communications operators 
> stationed all over the state.  We have had incredible work by Col 
> Lindler and his helpers at our state EOC for the past 72 hours or so - 
> truly an integral part of the response effort being put forth by all 
> levels of government.  Outstanding work by the members of Columbia and 
> Lexington Composite Squadrons who were called and showed up within 
> minutes yesterday to prepare and staff our headquarters.  They were 
> back today making sure everyone had what they needed, no one went 
> hungry, or didnt have a place to stay.  Mrs. Kim Phillips, our Wing 
> Administrator worked (approved) overtime - well above and beyond the 
> call of duty.  There are so many names out there deserving of 
> commendation and recognition - well definitely get to that.
>
> Included in all of this, we have two aircrews and aircraft each from 
> North Carolina and Georgia flying with us right now.  A GA-8 airvan 
> and an aircrew from Maryland arrived today, and are tasked first thing 
> in the morning.  We have a Cessna 206 coming from North Carolina 
> tomorrow.  Every bit of support we have asked for we have received 
> without hesitation.  This is the concept of No Borders, No Boundaries 
> in action, and it is working better than you could ever imagine for 
> the citizens of the Palmetto State.  Thanks to everyone who is here, 
> who will be here later, or who just volunteered to come.  Kudos to Lt 
> Col Jay Langley, the MER/DO, who simply answered the phone, heard my 
> request for him to just handle coordination of all out-of-wing 
> assets, and said, I got it.
>
> Tomorrow we will start the day with more SAR runs in flooded and 
> flood-prone areas.  Well then continue to work on Aerial Photography 
> and Impact Assessment missions.  As was so prevalent today, we will 
> also have a couple of aircraft and aircrews set aside to fly federal, 
> state and local officials that need to see what theyre dealing with.
>
> Please be sure your minds are on safety as we continue forward.  Its 
> very easy to get your mind so wrapped around what we need to do that 
> we forget about the little things that can cause incidents and 
> accidents.  We have mission requirements and we need to meet them, but 
> remember to plan your response so that you can respond to those needs 
> safely, effectively, and efficiently (in that order.)
>
> I am immensely proud be a leader and a servant in the Civil Air Patrol 
> today.  You should be too.
>
> Semper Vigilans,
>
> *Col**Francis H. Smith, Jr., CAP*
>
> South Carolina Wing Commander
>
> (W)
>
> 803.490.0180
>
> (C)
>
> 803.261.4981
>
> U.S.Air Force Auxiliary
>
> GoCivilAirPatrol.com <http://gocivilairpatrol.com/>
>
> scwgcap.org <http://scwgcap.org/>
>
>
> <https://www.facebook.com/pages/Civil-Air-Patrol/107647995924164>
>

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