Recon Missions Assist In Rescue Efforts

Members of Civil Air Patrol’s Texas Wing launched dozens of flights Monday to take photographs of damage in Houston, Galveston and other parts of east Texas, after Hurricane Ike devastated the state when it made landfall early Saturday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, 1st Air Force and the state of Texas all requested CAP’s assistance after Ike forced hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate and knocked out power to millions of homes and businesses.

Wing Commander Col. Joe Smith said eight aircraft launched up to 40 flights today from CAP’s base in San Antonio. CAP’s state-of-the-art ARCHER (airborne real-time cueing hyperspectral enhanced reconnaissance) technology was used to geolocate contaminants in the state’s groundwater.

CAP members throughout Texas gathered to help fellow citizens recover from the disaster that flooded and blocked roads with debris and left thousands uncertain of meeting immediate needs for food and shelter. Smith said although CAP members were among those devastated by the hurricane, they still came forth to assist.

"Everybody’s pitching in saying, 'What can I do to help?' Ground team members also passed out bottled water to residents in Houston at a FEMA distribution site," he said. "CAP’s aerial damage assessment photographs are vital to state and federal emergency managers’ ability to readily assess the extent of damage to the state’s infrastructure, including roads, bridges and power lines, as well as selected buildings."

"The state of Texas really appreciates our photo capabilities. Local, state and federal officials appreciate our efforts," Smith added. "They can go to a University of Texas Web site where we upload our photos, select their county and see pictures of damage in their hometowns."  

CAP received an additional tasking from FEMA today to take aerial damage assessment photos in both Texas and Louisiana of key ferry landings, bridges and plants. CAP expects these taskings to continue throughout the week.

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the US Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 56,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 90 percent of continental US inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 103 lives in fiscal year 2007.

FMI: www.cap.gov