26 March 2009 - Evening Update

CAP members are now engaged in operations in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. This message will summarize that activity for you.

North Dakota – Col Karl Altenburg, Incident Commander

Capt Rich Sprouse and Major Don Dalton working as Information Officers and have issued press releases summarizing today’s work. Thanks for your great work!

Wings respond to flooding in a blizzard
http://www.ncrpao.org/specials/2009_floods/20090326_nd_release_dd.htm

Floods of praise for Civil Air Patrol

http://www.ncrpao.org/specials/2009_floods/20090326_nd_release_rs.htm

Col Altenburg reports that this morning, activities began at 0800 at Fargo Mission Base. 

7 air, 64 total personnel, 49 ground, 8 mission base and 7 Air operations personnel

The crest level for Red River of the North in Fargo was raised to 41.0 feet and is predicted to occur on Saturday, March 28th.  Several homes and townships are being evacuated south of Fargo. 

City officials are pleading for more volunteers to fill and lay possibly another 1,000,000 sandbags over next 2 days.

An air crew was dispatched following an emergency request to locate an ice jam along the Sheyenne River.  An ice jam is suspected of causing the river to rapidly rise in the town of Fort Ransom, ND, 60 miles southwest of Fargo. 

If the source and extent of the jam is not identified, the town must be evacuated.  The crew flew along the Sheyenne River taking images and radioing the location of the ice jams to the Ransom County Emergency Operation Center. 

The crew consisted of Col Walter Vollmers (ND Wing), Lt Col Bruce Emmel (Red River Valley Senior Sqdn, ND), and 1st Lt Paul Engstrum (119th ANG Cadet Sqdn, ND).

We got another air crew out taking pictures south of Fargo in the communities of Abercrombie and Christine for a total of 2 air missions with 7 crew members involved.

Images from Today’s Air Missions:
http://www.ncrpao.org/specials/2009_floods/20090326_nd_aerial_1.htm

5 ground teams with a total of 49 members we dispatched to sites in north Fargo.  The ground teams consisted of members from both the North Dakota and Minnesota wings.  These teams built sandbag dikes all morning.  There have been more requests from sites needing help than can be immediately met by available resources.

Operations continue throughout the state. 

Yesterday, the Army Corps of Engineers used explosives to break up a large ice jam on the Missouri river south of Bismarck.  Maj Bill Kay (ND Wing) continues to control operations in the west with regular contact with Maj Sean Johnson, the Bismarck Composite Squadron commander, who is located in the ND State Emergency Operations Center.

The Red Cross continues to support the personnel both in the field and back at mission base with food and water.

South Dakota – Col Mike Beason, Incident Commander

SD Wing was tasked today to fly a photo mission to look at flooding in Brown Co, in north central SD. 

Several rivers are flooding there and the emergency managers requested photos for their planning.  A crew from Pierre Composite Squadron, Jackson, Dettman and Gatje, flew to Aberdeen where they sat out a snow squall with pilots from other agencies also doing photo work.  Then they launched and completed their mission. 

They are currently processing the photos to provide to the county and state.

Members:  Crew -3, Mission Base - 2

Minnesota Wing – Major Tony Rossini, Incident Commander

Minnesota Wing is engaged in a damage assessment flight for Stearns County where flooding is reported.

Media Coverage:

KECY TV – Mankato  http://www.keyc.com/node/19573

We have been mentioned regularly in the News of the Force E-News. Their site is www.newsoftheforce.org

I have received several communications from CAP members throughout the nation. They are very proud of your efforts and to a person they wanted to make sure you knew your efforts were appreciated.

General Thoughts:

Operations will continue tomorrow.

Thanks to Col Altenburg, Col Beason, Lt Col Wilberg, Major Dalton and Capt Sprouse as well as all of the members who provided input into the update.

The situation is very serious. Media reports indicate that the flooding is of record setting proportions. It is dangerous because of the weather and the work on the dikes and levees is hard. There are many people working to avert a major disaster.

In other parts of the region our air crews are assessing the risk of flooding, the potential for damage and the danger to our communities.

I continue to be amazed at the self less service of our members.

Once again if you cannot be in the Flood Zone to help please consider donating to an agency such as the Red Cross or Salvation Army. These agencies provide direct assistance to victims and responders. The money you donate will directly help the efforts in the flood zone.

We will try to get another update together tomorrow morning.