Florida’s CERFP team is conducting search and rescue operations in Gulf and Bay Counties in Wake of Hurricane Michael. Their mission is to go to every home to check on the welfare of citizens.
“We are surrounding the storm,” said Gen Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command. “This is no small feat given the unprecedented size and strength of [Hurricane] Michael.”
The storm soon entered the State of Georgia. Nine hundred Georgia National Guard Soldiers and Airmen from 38 separate units participated in the relief effort. While early on, Mitchell and Seminole Counties in the southwest region of the State were some of the hardest hit by the storm, Baker County, Calhoun County, Decatur County, Dougherty County, Miller County, Lee County and Terrell County were also impacted by the hurricane.
“We ran PODs [points of distribution] for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency and FEMA” said LTC John Low, deputy commander for the 648th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade. “We ran nine across southwest Georgia. We also took trailers from metro Atlanta with FEMA supplies and ran those down to the PODs. We had a transportation company doing that. And then our engineer battalion did a lot of route clearance.”
Units also used High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles as “mobile PODs,” delivering supplies to rural areas where farmers were trapped by downed trees and smashed farm vehicles.
In addition to running PODs, Georgia National Guard members conducted route clearance, traffic control and movement operations to and from locations in southwestern Georgia where most of the damage in the State occurred.
