USA — Guard Responds to Flooding in Three States

ARLINGTON, Va., June 15, 2010 — More than 400 Nation­al Guard mem­bers from three states have been called up for flood duty after heavy rains and snow run-off caused crest­ing rivers this week, offi­cials said.

Wyoming Army National Guard's A Battery, 2-300th Field Artillery
Air Force Staff Sgt. Niki Label of the Wyoming Air Nation­al Guard’s 187th Aeromed­ical Evac­u­a­tion Squadron and Army Pfc. Tay­lor Carl­son of the Wyoming Army Nation­al Guard’s A Bat­tery, 2–300th Field Artillery, fill sand­bags to aid in stop­ping the ris­ing flood waters of the Popo Agie Riv­er in Fre­mont Coun­ty, Wyo., June 11, 2010.
Pho­to by Chris­t­ian Ven­huizen
Click to enlarge

The gov­er­nors of Wyoming, Nebras­ka and West Vir­ginia have declared states of emer­gency and called in the Guard to help in pro­tect­ing peo­ple and their prop­er­ty. In Wyoming, the num­ber of Army and Air Guard mem­bers on state active duty increased from 250 to 400 today. 

“The main con­cern con­tin­ues to be the Freemont Coun­ty area,” said Diedre Forster, pub­lic affairs offi­cer for the Wyoming Nation­al Guard. “There is oth­er flood­ing going on in var­i­ous oth­er areas of the state, and we’re keep­ing our eye on them, but Freemont Coun­ty has been the only place we have been called on to assist.” 

Chris­t­ian Van­huizen, inci­dent com­mand pub­lic infor­ma­tion offi­cer for Wyoming, said sev­er­al rivers are expect­ed to crest by June 18 and that flood­wa­ters like­ly will con­tin­ue for some time. “Per­son­nel are pro­vid­ing flood mit­i­ga­tion efforts, such as fill­ing and stack­ing sand bags, as well as help­ing [civil­ians] leave their homes in times of insta­bil­i­ty,” he said. “We are also work­ing with local law enforce­ment agen­cies, pro­vid­ing secu­ri­ty in flood-dam­aged areas and restrict­ed areas.” 

He added that pre­cip­i­ta­tion is expect­ed to con­tin­ue in the form of more thun­der­storms and snow in the high­er elevations. 

“Last week’s flood­ing was caused by a large melt­ing snow­pack up in the moun­tains,” Van­huizen said. “A cold front that passed through the moun­tains late last week stopped the run-off from the melt­ing snow­pack, but also brought with it about two more feet of snow. That’s what we are brac­ing for right now, and some of the rivers are show­ing slight increas­es and we expect those to con­tin­ue through­out the day.” 

In Nebras­ka, the Guard respond­ed to requests from the Nebras­ka Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency to assist with dam­age assess­ments after recent statewide flooding. 

“The flood­ing in our state cov­ers a large geo­graph­ic area and varies in sever­i­ty,” said Army Lt. Col. Bob Vrana, pub­lic affairs offi­cer. “There are about 60 coun­ties that have been impact­ed in one way or anoth­er, and 44 of those have request­ed assis­tance from the state at this point.” 

He said about 10 sol­diers are assist­ing the Nebras­ka EMA with dam­age assess­ment and mis­sion analysis. 

“Some of those 10 are staffing the emer­gency oper­a­tions cen­ter, act­ing as liaisons between the Nebras­ka Nation­al Guard and the emer­gency man­age­ment agency,” Vrana said. “We’re work­ing in con­junc­tion with a num­ber of state [and fed­er­al] agen­cies, and we have the resources to pro­vide more assis­tance if the con­di­tions worsen.” 

Vrana said that the dam­age has been to coun­ty roads, bridges, homes and ranches. 

In West Vir­ginia, Guard offi­cials said sol­diers were called in to help with debris removal that result­ed from the severe storms. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →