Hurricane Irene

[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.