Members Engaged in Damage Assessment
Fifty-five members of the Maryland Wing of the Civil Air Patrol
were mobilized to support damage assessments in the wake of
Hurricane Irene’s passage. Two CAP aircraft and 14 ground
teams, comprised of both cadets and senior members, surveyed 65
areas throughout eastern Maryland. These damage assessments, which
began at 0730 EDT Sunday, were conducted at the request of the
Maryland Emergency Management Agency. Once weather conditions
cleared in the western part of the state, CAP pilots and air crews
took to the skies to snap high-resolution pictures of flooding and
property damage. All photos were sent to the Maryland Joint
Operations Center to be used for post-storm assessment.
CAP Image
Maj. Christopher Howell, the CAP Incident Commander on duty
during yesterday’s assessments, noted that the damage was
lighter than expected in some areas. “Maryland Wing is proud
to partner with the Maryland Emergency Management Agency and help
support the citizens of Maryland,” said Maj. Howell.
Maryland Wing began preparations for Hurricane Irene on
Thursday, Aug. 25, by moving aircraft out of the path of the storm
and alerting members to prepare for ground team, air crew and
mission base tasking. CAP liaison officers were integrated into
MEMA’s Maryland Joint Operations Center beginning on
Saturday, Aug. 27. CAP’s Incident Command at Martin State
Airport began operations yesterday, conducting damage assessment
operations once the hurricane had passed.
“Our whole process is based on pre-planning,”
explained Col. Gerard Weiss, the ICP’s planning section
chief. We have standard operational plans ready to go for scenarios
such as search and rescue, disaster relief, and safeguarding the
wing’s aircraft during a hurricane. As events unfold, these
plans are activated and the wing springs into action.
CAP Image
Early this June, Maryland Wing had the opportunity to practice
responding to a very similar scenario during the biennial
evaluation of the wing’s capability to safely and effectively
execute the Air Force’s non-combat search and rescue mission.
The scenario for this year’s evaluation, for which Maryland
Wing received the top rating of highly successful, was a simulated
hurricane that caused extensive damage when it made landfall in
Maryland. As part of the exercise, Maryland Wing responded to
simulated tasking from MEMA by conducting actual air and ground
sorties to assess notional damage. “We practiced activating
our operational plans, and we used the same procedures,” said
Weiss, who also served as an incident commander during the
exercise.
More than 1,500 members of CAP serve in Maryland. Last fiscal
year wing members flew 42 search and rescue missions and were
credited with 31 finds.