25 June 2008

Update from Major David Miller, MOWG/PAD

- The breach of the Elm Pointe levee in St. Charles yesterday, coupled with continued sandbagging efforts in Winfield, directly influenced our activities throughout the day on 24 June. CAP liaison was maintained at the St. Charles County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), coordinating between the aircrews and needs of the EOC including rapid aerial reconnaissance of the breached levee and it's flooding. Because of the proximity of the flooding, we continue to be able to hand off urgent photos in near real-time as the aircrew lands at nearby St. Charles Municipal Airport and hands a flash drive directly over to a runner. Kudos to 1st Lt. Tim Mohr (St. Louis Comp. Squadron 1) for all of his efforts at the St. Charles County EOC. Capt. Greg Medsker (St. Charles Comp. Squadron) will assume the liaison position today and tomorrow.

- Within only a couple of hours of receiving approval for the new mission re-supporting Lincoln County, we were able to quickly reestablish Winfield Mission Base at the Winfield High School. Kudos to Capt's. Medsker and Larry Maxfield (Cuivre River Comp. Squadron) for their quick work. In addition, 1st Lt Rick Sexton (St. Charles Comp. Squadron) oversaw the transfer of our communication center back to Winfield Mission Base. Efforts there involved traffic control and communication with aircrew. In two days, hundreds of volunteers were able to sandbag more than 340 additional tons of sand resulting in 50,000 new sandbags for immediate use.

- To date, efforts in Lincoln County have resulted in:
- More than 400,000 sandbags
- Utilized more than 4.5 million pounds of sand
- Unfortunately the flooding has covered more than 70,000 acres with water, flooded more than 350 homes, and caused 7 levee breaches

- Our activities continue to be listed in the twice-daily SEMA Situation Reports.

- The photo IT team headed up by 2Lt. Scott Schwab (Gateway Senior Squadron) developed a faster way to batch upload photos with tagged lat/long info for use by SEMA and local EOC's.

- Our own Capt. Brian Thompson (Mid Rivers Senior Squadron) is highlighted on the main national FEMA web site ( www.fema.gov  ), under "Midwest Response and Recovery". The photo by FEMA photographer Jocelyn Augustino of Capt. Thompson pre-flighting our G1000 C-182 came from her CAP flight on 20 June 2008.

- Media contacts continue as I followed up with Tim Bryant of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Casey Nolen and Jeff Small of KSDK Channel 5, local NBC affiliate.

- Twice daily air sorties continue flying the Mississippi river from St. Charles to Keokuk, Iowa, with concentration on the urgent levee situations in and around St. Charles mainly yesterday and today. Yesterday's AM sortie was scrubbed due to bad weather but were able to get photos of the Elm Pointe levee breach before they had to land. The PM sortie was successful.

- Yesterday's participation totals include:39 volunteers (cadets, senior members, and aircrew), two flights totaling 3.2 hours, and a total of 328.6 man-hours served. To date, more than 170 Missouri Wing members have performed more than 1600 man-hours of volunteer flood relief service, including more than 13 sorties. More than 1,000 aerial photos have been taken for SEMA.

- I was onsite at Winfield Mission Base briefly last night witnessing first hand the extent of service our volunteers are performing. Group II Asst. PAO, Lt. Col. Larry Kuban, will be onsite this afternoon.


V/R,
David

David A. Miller, Maj, CAP
Asst. PAO, MOWG