Hurricane Irene

[Smoothice]

It's getting pretty busy around here in the North East! Lot's of emails floating around...real official looking stuff!

It's not supposed to be up here until probably Sunday night.

This is my first time in 2 years of CAP that I have actually been "on alert".

I wonder what we will be tasked to do (if anything)

All I know is, tonight I am going through my 24-hour pack!

Not something to be taken lightly, but it's kind of excting!

Oh yeah...what does "ROCON" mean? As in ROCON operations....

[1LtNurseOfficer]

All I know is, tonight I am going through my 24-hour pack!

I'd suggest your 72-hr pack as well. 

Don't forget to strap down your house.  We that live in Oz already have enough houses   

[Майор Хаткевич]

What was the context that ROCON was used in?

[Eclipse]

ROCON does afternoons on WGN.

http://www.roeconn.com/

[RADIOMAN015]

Well typically wings on the coast will be evacuating their aircraft to more inland facilities.  Our wing is the direct air support for the state Emergency Management Agency, so will be in the command & control bunker starting on Thursday.  I'd assume that we will put initiate an alert and typical radio confidence checks will be conducted, etc.

Hopefully the entire storm will go out to sea and everyone will be wrong, but right now even southern New England will be affected.
RM

[RRLE]

Hurricane Irene is starting to look a lot like the Long Island Express aka Great Hurricane of 1938, aka New England Hurricane of 1938 etc.

[Eclipse]

...so will be in the command & control bunker starting on Thursday. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtzOhJ3mR8U

[SarDragon]

A friend in the area was comparing the projected path to Donna in '60. They seem to be similar, with Irene hanging more off the coast around North Florida.

Irene:



Donna:

[Capination]

Well typically wings on the coast will be evacuating their aircraft to more inland facilities.  Our wing is the direct air support for the state Emergency Management Agency, so will be in the command & control bunker starting on Thursday.  I'd assume that we will put initiate an alert and typical radio confidence checks will be conducted, etc.

Hopefully the entire storm will go out to sea and everyone will be wrong, but right now even southern New England will be affected.
RM

The storm became a hurricane right over Puerto Rico at 5AM Monday morning. Though we were lucky enough to suffer only Cat I winds. It rained cat and dogs; 15 inches of water in 72 hours. Power and water was knocked down pretty much in the whole island for two days but we are back in business again. As for CAP involvement in DR efforts we are operating from the State EMA headquarters coordinating photo flights of major highways, airports, ports and dams. Ground teams helped with setting up shelters and assisting EMA personnel on land slides sites and flooding recovery.

Hang on and God bless you all in the East Coast.

[ShaggyMuffins]

Seemsike a good first post for me. Hm. This hurricane has my squadron at a frenzy. I'm smack dab in the middle of NYC. Were on full alert according ti National and Wing. This is looking to be a DR op. Sounds fun. I'll keep you guys posted.



C/A1C Rodriguez J

[Майор Хаткевич]

I'll keep you guys posted.

Until you lose power.

[DakRadz]

I felt the earthquake while working at Kings Island (amusement park in SW Ohio)- I was on a ride and felt it start shuddering/vibrating, and remember thinking, "It shouldn't be doing that... Oh well WHEEEEEEE!"

Anyway.

Since I did live through that, all that remains to be seen is where I shall end up when Irene strikes 

[sarmed1]

I dont know what ROCON is; RECON on the other hand is a FLWG specific mission directly for FL EMA specifically post impact infrastructure damage assessment.  Perhaps some other wings have taken up similar missions in their respective states.

Based on my FLWG time, the biggest factor here is landfall point and then continued travel path..ie over water may still have hurricaine like strength=busy operations vs travel overland, then its just lots of rain and flood type stuff.

We had a few in FL when I was there that where at Hurricaine strength, dropped to tropical storm strength once they landed, then picked back up to hurricaine speed once back over the gulf then hit the panhandle again at hurricain force.

should be interesting to see how this plays out

mk

[Eclipse]

I felt the earthquake while working at Kings Island (amusement park in SW Ohio)- I was on a ride and felt it start shuddering/vibrating, and remember thinking, "It shouldn't be doing that... Oh well WHEEEEEEE!"

Anyway.

Since I did live through that, all that remains to be seen is where I shall end up when Irene strikes 

One thing that struck me about the quake is how important overall preparedness is, vs. getting ready for any one specific "thing".

That, and the fact that we need to stop working as if individual events are start and end points for response.   CAP members get so used to being
able to schedule everything around their lives, they forget that a disaster can happen while they are on the way home from the SAREx, whether they
are tired and out of resources or not.

[SarDragon]

I'll keep you guys posted.

Until you loose power.

Why not tight power?   

[Майор Хаткевич]

<_<

Last time I post from a cellphone...

[BTCS1*]

Too bad we aren't gonna see any action cause the NYPD and FDNY are so good at what they do.

Seemsike a good first post for me. Hm. This hurricane has my squadron at a frenzy. I'm smack dab in the middle of NYC. Were on full alert according ti National and Wing. This is looking to be a DR op. Sounds fun. I'll keep you guys posted.



C/A1C Rodriguez J

[Capination]

Keep your eyes on NHC weather briefs every three hours and monitor Satellite and Radar in between. Here are some great links for your assignment:


http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201109.html    (wundermap and the interactive flash tracker are great!)

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/flt/t2/flash-rb.html  (best satellite image loop)

[Smoothice]

The ROCON reference was in an email I saw that was forwarded to our unit through the National Guard....said something like...   CAP: On standby for ROCON operations...

Something like that.

[a2capt]

Until you loose power.

Why not tight power?   

Okay, ... at least now I was forced to clean off the monitors.
Coca-Cola makes it kinda hard to see..

[jks19714]

Good grief.  I know that the East Coast has been lucky with regard to hurricanes for the past couple of years, but come on -- this isn't our first rodeo.

I'm an engineer for a large power utility -- we started our 72 hour lists back on Tuesday.  Routine, we do it before every storm (if we have that much warning).

I would hope that CAP is no different...

[Phil Hirons, Jr.]

Let's all keep calm, prepare and don't self-deploy.

[davidsinn]

Let's all keep calm, prepare and don't self-deploy.

Do this:



Don't be like the civilian population and do this:



Or this:

[Huey Driver]

My county just got a mandatory evacuation for non-emergency personel... Oh boy.

[Eclipse]

Personal what?

[a2capt]

power generators, for that 'loose' power? ;-)

[SAR-EMT1]

What have the East Coast states currently have in the way of staging bases ? Any inland states prepping to send resources to the coast?

[afgeo4]

NY Wing has its operations center in Westchester Co, which is in the impacted area, but on high ground, away from water and in a large brick building. I believe they moved their aircraft away from Long Island and I know the NYC van is being moved to higher ground tomorrow morning.

We're ready. Bring it on!

[Capination]

NY Wing has its operations center in Westchester Co, which is in the impacted area, but on high ground, away from water and in a large brick building. I believe they moved their aircraft away from Long Island and I know the NYC van is being moved to higher ground tomorrow morning.

We're ready. Bring it on!

Good. But just in case, if Irene makes it to NY as a Cat. III hurricane, stay away from the "brick" walls. I survived Andrew (Fl- 1992) and Georges (PR- 1998) and I've seen how easy Cat III's blew away not only brick walls but cement block walls too, crushed like Styrofoam.  (though Andrew was a compact Cat V).

[JayT]

NY Wing has its operations center in Westchester Co, which is in the impacted area, but on high ground, away from water and in a large brick building. I believe they moved their aircraft away from Long Island and I know the NYC van is being moved to higher ground tomorrow morning.

We're ready. Bring it on!

Good. But just in case, if Irene makes it to NY as a Cat. III hurricane, stay away from the "brick" walls. I survived Andrew (Fl- 1992) and Georges (PR- 1998) and I've seen how easy Cat III's blew away not only brick walls but cement block walls too, crushed like Styrofoam.  (though Andrew was a compact Cat V).

It's gonna hit as a Cat 1. I'm firmly in the path. I got called in for twelve hours Sat overnight at my 911 gig, then I'm at my normal transport gig on Sunday. Should be a completely disaster.

[RADIOMAN015]

What have the East Coast states currently have in the way of staging bases ? Any inland states prepping to send resources to the coast?

Westover ARB, MA has been designated as the FEMA Region 1 Incident Support Base, with about 105 tractor trailer trucks (filled with bottled water, generators, tarps, food, and other emergency supplies) arriving today and tomorrow.

All C5 aircraft have been evacuated from the base to FL & OH, but will also be tasked to fly in supplies to certain areas from the deployed bases. 

I would suspect that CAP aircraft will be operating out of this base, depending upon how other geographic areas are affected by wind & rain (flooding) and utilities availability, as well as other airports runways and support buildings damage.
RM   

[Thrashed]

Weather channel is showing it hitting NJ/NY as just less than CAT 1. That is 70 MPH.

Category 1. Winds of 74 to 95 miles per hour.
Damage primarily to shrubbery, trees, foliage, and mobile homes. No real wind damage to other structures. Some damage to poorly constructed signs. Low-lying coastal roads inundated, minor pier damage, some small craft in exposed anchorage torn from moorings.

Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. 

[Major Lord]

NY Wing has its operations center in Westchester Co, which is in the impacted area, but on high ground, away from water and in a large brick building. I believe they moved their aircraft away from Long Island and I know the NYC van is being moved to higher ground tomorrow morning.

We're ready. Bring it on!

Good. But just in case, if Irene makes it to NY as a Cat. III hurricane, stay away from the "brick" walls. I survived Andrew (Fl- 1992) and Georges (PR- 1998) and I've seen how easy Cat III's blew away not only brick walls but cement block walls too, crushed like Styrofoam.  (though Andrew was a compact Cat V).

It's gonna hit as a Cat 1. I'm firmly in the path. I got called in for twelve hours Sat overnight at my 911 gig, then I'm at my normal transport gig on Sunday. Should be a completely disaster.

Bring spare uniforms, socks and underwear....during the Oakland Hills fire I wore the same stinky, smokey, uniform for 5 days until I could steal a set of scrubs and worked in those until I was well into the hallucination range of sleeplessness. Good luck.

Major Lord

[Persona non grata]

...so will be in the command & control bunker starting on Thursday. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtzOhJ3mR8U

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa  RM make sure you let the people in the comand center that you are CIVIL air vpatrol

[JayT]

NY Wing has its operations center in Westchester Co, which is in the impacted area, but on high ground, away from water and in a large brick building. I believe they moved their aircraft away from Long Island and I know the NYC van is being moved to higher ground tomorrow morning.

We're ready. Bring it on!

Good. But just in case, if Irene makes it to NY as a Cat. III hurricane, stay away from the "brick" walls. I survived Andrew (Fl- 1992) and Georges (PR- 1998) and I've seen how easy Cat III's blew away not only brick walls but cement block walls too, crushed like Styrofoam.  (though Andrew was a compact Cat V).

It's gonna hit as a Cat 1. I'm firmly in the path. I got called in for twelve hours Sat overnight at my 911 gig, then I'm at my normal transport gig on Sunday. Should be a completely disaster.

Bring spare uniforms, socks and underwear....during the Oakland Hills fire I wore the same stinky, smokey, uniform for 5 days until I could steal a set of scrubs and worked in those until I was well into the hallucination range of sleeplessness. Good luck.

Major Lord

Thanks for the advice Major. I got called into my transport gig for a Tour 1.

[RADIOMAN015]

...so will be in the command & control bunker starting on Thursday. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtzOhJ3mR8U

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa  RM make sure you let the people in the comand center that you are CIVIL air vpatrol

Actually there's two "bunkers" (yes from the cold war days) in the state.  The FEMA Region 1 bunker and the state Emergency Management bunker.  These are below ground facilities (with a bit of a "hump" showing above ground), with generators, own water/food supplies,  on site radio systems (and linking radio systems via microwave), etc.  Civil Air Patrol has representatives both at the FEMA bunker Region 1 (likely representing lst AF for Disaster relief coordination with all New England CAP wings and AF/AF Reserve support) and the state bunker (CAP personnel per the state MOA). 

Ground support wise in the state, over 500 Army/AF National Guard personnel have been called up for duty, so likely that will be the primary support, with not much CAP ground team involvement.    Civil Air Patrol in the state will be primarily providing photo & personnel recon type service via the aircraft fleet with appropriate command & control via selected ground radio stations (air/ground).  I would also think that CAP's HF SSB/ALE radio system will act as a backup in case of any telecomm failure.

Uniform wise, I would think that personnel would wear what is comfortable for them, and generally in the state emergency management bunker, short sleeve golf shirts are the norm that is worn by state personnel, so perhaps CAP might do the same and generally the National Guard military rep wears their appropriate utility uniform. 

RM     

[EMT-83]

CTWG has relocated aircraft inland and hangered them. Squadrons near the shore are securing their facilities - vehicles, comm gear, etc. are being relocated.

We've been tasked to the state EOC, and an IC has been assigned. Mission base, air and ground team rosters are being compiled. Photo missions are expected to be airborne at first light Monday morning, based on the current storm track.

We've been training hard, so hopefully everything will fall into place as it should.

[Luis R. Ramos]

New York City made a call for CAP volunteers to help staff a) volunteer processing center Mon, Tue, and Wed and b) process calls for assistance Tue and Wed.

Plan to attend the volunteer processing center...

Take care,

Flyer333555

[mjbernier]

Good luck and Godspeed to all of you called up for duty in Irene's path.

Mike

[jpizzo127]

It looks like Irene will not require our responce here on Long Island.

Oh well, off to my paying job.

[Luis R. Ramos]

New York City stood down as of 1730 or so. No deployment... There goes my chance for a second DR with "V" device.

Oh well, everything was not lost. I am a city employee, therefore, I earned some needed money by working two 1600 to 0400 shifts at an evacuation center/hurricane shelter.

Flyer333555

[RiverAux]

Incidentally, we seem to have experienced some of the same PIO issues during Irene as DWH. 

Big time hurricane over the weekend -- # of stories about CAP's involvement during this period posted on VolunteerNow as of a few minutes ago - 0.  Some stories about preparations, but nothing about actual response. 

Other channels indicate that press release approvals were all messed up and woefully untimely.

So, yet another opportunity mostly missed. 

[afgeo4]

Too bad we aren't gonna see any action cause the NYPD and FDNY are so good at what they do.

Seemsike a good first post for me. Hm. This hurricane has my squadron at a frenzy. I'm smack dab in the middle of NYC. Were on full alert according ti National and Wing. This is looking to be a DR op. Sounds fun. I'll keep you guys posted.



C/A1C Rodriguez J

You're partially right. It's true that in NYC, we have the largest and best full-time first responder agencies in the country and maybe the world. It's also true that CAP won't get any traditional missions here. However, we've been working on finding a new niche for ourselves here. We now have a seat on the NYC OEM and they've been throwing requests our way here and there. They're also getting to know our people, our resources and our capabilities. We didn't get hit hard by this one, thankfully, but it was a good practice for us and you will find more DR opportunities in the future. After all, it's not he last disaster that will hit NYC.

[RADIOMAN015]

Our squadron sent a photo recon team up close to the Vermont border (BTW cellphone system was intact so they could email the pictures in near real time back to the IC).   The wing also had some aerial photo recon missions for various state & federal agencies.   As communicators we ran confidence check nets at a defined interval throughout the tropical storm as directed by our wing DC.  (Our geographic area had moderate/heavy rain with some wind gusts).
RM

[RADIOMAN015]

Incidentally, we seem to have experienced some of the same PIO issues during Irene as DWH. 

Big time hurricane over the weekend -- # of stories about CAP's involvement during this period posted on VolunteerNow as of a few minutes ago - 0.  Some stories about preparations, but nothing about actual response. 

Other channels indicate that press release approvals were all messed up and woefully untimely.

So, yet another opportunity mostly missed.

Just before the storm we PAO's got the AF/CAP national policy again on prior authorization requirements for any press release IF an assigned AF funded mission.   I personally don't see anything in DR that requires secret squirrel protection/review.

Personally, my suggestion to our wing PAO was to simply just take some video of the planes landing & taxiing in to the hangers for storm evacuation.  Also later I thought some video of a few members (staged) operating radios could be videoed also.   A simple release stating CAP was on standby with its radio nets being constantly tested for command & control (if a normal comm outage was experienced) and aircraft protected and were likely to provide assistance to federal & state authorities after the storm had past with tasks such as aerial photo recon, transportation of critical supplies & officials.      Some TV news rooms now allow videos, pictures, and short narratives to be uploaded to their website, so you don't even need to take the time to escort them out on the airport/military base.
RM     

[Spaceman3750]

Incidentally, we seem to have experienced some of the same PIO issues during Irene as DWH. 

Big time hurricane over the weekend -- # of stories about CAP's involvement during this period posted on VolunteerNow as of a few minutes ago - 0.  Some stories about preparations, but nothing about actual response. 

Other channels indicate that press release approvals were all messed up and woefully untimely.

So, yet another opportunity mostly missed.

Just before the storm we PAO's got the AF/CAP national policy again on prior authorization requirements for any press release IF an assigned AF funded mission.   I personally don't see anything in DR that requires secret squirrel protection/review.

Personally, my suggestion to our wing PAO was to simply just take some video of the planes landing & taxiing in to the hangers for storm evacuation.  Also later I thought some video of a few members (staged) operating radios could be videoed also.   A simple release stating CAP was on standby with its radio nets being constantly tested for command & control (if a normal comm outage was experienced) and aircraft protected and were likely to provide assistance to federal & state authorities after the storm had past with tasks such as aerial photo recon, transportation of critical supplies & officials.      Some TV news rooms now allow videos, pictures, and short narratives to be uploaded to their website, so you don't even need to take the time to escort them out on the airport/military base.
RM   

Because all press releases regarding an incident (with mission number) are required to be cleared by the IC/PIO of that incident. If you don't know that, go straight to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

[Thrashed]

The power is back on! Five days without power due to Irene. 

[jpizzo127]

Our group had a few Photo Recon sorties and I've heard upstate and some of the new england wings were busy.

We did fly a few FEMA and DoT guys to survey the devastation upstate New York.

We should be getting some press in Volunteer this month for this.

[EMT-83]

CTWG flew photo sorties, flew FEMA personnel, worked with Red Cross on damage assessment and staffed shelters. This is exactly where we have focused our training for the past two years.

Maybe I missed it because my power was out, but I'm not aware of anything in the press.

[Phil Hirons, Jr.]

RIWG flew DA missions for RI EMA and did ground DA photos on the Pawtuxet River as it's just to close to 2 approaches to T.F. Green Airport (PVD). Had to un-move some of our equipment from the new Wing HQ to the old as we did not have internet set up at the new location yet.

[Huey Driver]

NER flew 74 air sorties and had 21 ground sorties for FEMA in support of Irene.

[jpizzo127]

Sounds good. Would have liked some ground sorties here on Long Island. I'm surprised we did not get any ELT missions from this.