|
Return to the
Flood Home Page
Press Release from North Dakota Wing
Major Bill Kay, ND Wing April 15th 2009
Civil Air Patrol Continues Flood Disaster Response
Efforts
North Dakota Wing continues to support flood relief efforts
throughout North Dakota. With aircraft and aircrews from all
of the squadrons in the wing, the battle rages on. Flying in
support of the State of North Dakota, the crews were tasked
with aerial imaging of the major rivers in the state
including the Missouri, Knife, Heart, Souris, Sheyenne,
James, Wild Rice, Maple, and the Red.
This monumental effort has all of the Wing’s aircraft,
flying out of bases at Minot, Dickinson, Bismarck, Fargo,
and Grand Forks working together to provide the state with
“eyes on” the flood. Greg Wilz, North Dakota State Director
of Emergency Services, states that “CAP is like the Calvary
for North Dakota. We couldn’t have responded as well as we
have without them.”
To consolidate efforts throughout the state, the CAP
Incident Commander (IC), Major Bill Kay, split the state
into three manageable area commands; Bismarck Area Command,
Fargo Area Command, and Grand Forks Area Command. This
allowed each area to concentrate on their area without the
need to worry about what is going on in other areas of the
state. Each Area Command answers to the IC and gets their
“marching orders” from him daily.
For the first time ever, the State Emergency Operations
Center (SEOC) has established an Air Operations Branch
within the SEOC. That position is been filled by the
Commander of the Bismarck Composite Squadron, Major Sean
Johnson. Major Johnson is responsible for managing all state
and federal air assets for this disaster.
Since March 20th, the Wing has assisted the citizens of
North Dakota with sandbagging in Fargo, Grand Forks,
Bismarck, and Beulah, and flown 95 flights and 230 hours
providing over 5000 aerial images for the State Emergency
Operations Center (SEOC). During that time, assistance from
Minnesota and South Dakota Wings helped us get
“over-the-hump”.
CAP is not done yet. We continue to fly aerial imaging
flights for the SEOC, making sure that the state is aware if
potential ice jams and overland flooding.
Return to the
Flood Home Page |
