Texas Wing Active in Flood Relief Efforts

By Major Joe Ely Carrales, CAP

Texas Wing - The word came out on 27 June 2007 from Capt Martin Padilla, CAP, Texas Wing Emergency Service Officer and by 1 July the Texas Wing Civil Air Patrol continued to support the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management Critical, DEMC.

The ongoing locally Heavy Rain Event was forecast to and continued on into the weekend. The DEMC identified is priorities including, an effort to account for citizens in impacted counties & insure their safety, perform search and rescue as required, provide mass care support to impacted counties, support debris removal efforts and provide Damage Assessments as conditions allow.

“In response to this dangerous situation, said Capt Padilla, the State of Texas has pre-positioned State resources and equipment in strategic locations and continues to provide an immediate response to protect lives and property.”

As of 1 July 2007, Texas Civil Air Patrol aircraft provided photography over flights of flood areas including the Brazos River area of Parker County and the Possum Kingdom Lake area of Palo Pinto County.

In all the overall taskforce is made up of numerous organizations contributing resources and manpower toward the effort. This includes the Texas Military Forces, the Health and Human Services Commission, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Commission on Environment Quality, Texas Cooperative Extension County Extension Agents, Department of State Health Services, and the American Red Cross.

Additionally, the US Coast Guard provided five H-65 helicopters, which were staged in Austin & San Antonio, and the Army Corps of Engineers provided real time reservoir statistics and release rates for downstream planning purposes.

The state remained in a stagnant weather pattern, between an area of high pressure over the four corners and another area of high pressure over the Southeast U.S. The area between these features provided a favorable air mass for thunderstorm development through the weekend.“Texas response preparations, continued Capt Padilla, “were put to work overnight with water rescues in Eastland, Burnet, Hood and Williamson Counties. These operations continued in other parts of the state. The Marble Falls area of Burnet County received 19 inches of rainfall in 8-10 hours including one burst of 8 inches in 1 hour.

For additional information regarding the current situation, please review the State SITREP at http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/dem/sitrepindex.htm

The Wing thanks all involved for their continued support and efforts.