USA — Tennessee Guard Continues Flood Support Missions

ARLINGTON, Va., May 5, 2010 — Almost 300 Ten­nessee Nation­al Guard mem­bers con­tin­ue to assist civil­ian emer­gency respon­ders in Nashville today after near­ly 20 inch­es of rain drenched the state over the week­end.

Tennessee Army National Guard's 1/230th Air Calvary Squadron
Res­i­dents of Cheatham Coun­ty, Tenn., assist in unload­ing water and food deliv­ered by the Ten­nessee Army Nation­al Guard’s 1/230th Air Cal­vary Squadron, May 5, 2010. Week­end rains flood­ed many areas of the Vol­un­teer State.
Bildquelle: U.S. Army pho­to by Capt. Dar­rin Haas
Click to enlarge

Ten­nessee Gov. Phil Bre­desen called out the Guard as the result­ing flash floods and ris­ing riv­er waters strand­ed res­i­dents in their homes, flood­ed road­ways, cut pow­er and dam­aged prop­er­ty and infra­struc­ture. It also caused a report­ed 10 deaths in Nashville, and eight more around the state, offi­cials said. 

Randy Har­ris, a spokesman for the Ten­nessee Guard, said the rapid­ly ris­ing flood waters cut off assis­tance for some residents. 

“The 1176th Trans­porta­tion Com­pa­ny assist­ed in about 230 res­cues,” he said. 

Today, the Ten­nessee Army Guard deliv­ered water to their armory in Cen­ter­ville and to strand­ed res­i­dents in Cheatham Coun­ty. Twelve sol­diers from the 212th Engi­neer Com­pa­ny with three 5‑ton dump trucks and Humvees also removed flood debris in Weak­ley County. 

The Ten­nessee Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency report­ed that Guard sol­diers worked side by side with the Ash­land City Fire Depart­ment to air­lift food and water to strand­ed cit­i­zens in Cheatham County. 

“The 1–230 Air Cav­al­ry Squadron air­crew, along with vol­un­teers and Ash­land City Assis­tant Fire Chief Bri­an Big­gs, loaded two truck­loads of water onto the air­craft and then flew it to peo­ple in need,” TEMA offi­cials reported. 

TEMA also report­ed that the Army Guard avi­a­tors land­ed in fields, front yards, and even the dri­ve­way lead­ing to the Chris­t­ian Care Cen­ter of Cheatham County. 

“It’s my first mis­sion since being back from Iraq this past year,” said Army Sgt. Caleb Bucy, a heli­copter crew chief. “I’m proud to get out and help Ten­nesseans any way I can.” 

Flood warn­ings from the Nation­al Weath­er Ser­vice remained in effect today in the cen­tral and west­ern parts of the state. Only a slight chance of rain and thun­der­storms was fore­cast for the next nine days. 

Har­ris said that the Guard might see con­tin­ued cleanup mis­sions as the water lev­els drop. 

“Flood­ing is sort of new to us, but they have done an excel­lent job,” he said. 

Ten­nessee Nation­al Guard https://tn.ngb.army.mil/

Source:
Nation­al Guard Bureau 

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