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AFNORTH ready to support Isaac relief efforts

  • Published
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Air Forces Northern (AFNORTH) has readied itself to provide military resources to civil authorities if requested as Hurricane Isaac works its way across the Gulf of Mexico with landfall expected to occur somewhere between Mississippi and Louisiana.

AFNORTH is the Air Force organization responsible for providing Air Force resources to U.S. Northern Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., for Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA).

Distinctive Air Force support missions during DSCA include air transport, search and rescue, MEDEVAC, incident awareness and disaster assessment through imagery and full motion video, general personnel evacuation, airspace safety and control, and aerial spray pest control.

As of Monday, Aug. 27:

· The National Security Emergency Preparedness (NSEP) directorate deployed emergency planning liaison officers (EPLOs) to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico Aug. 24 to coordinate with local and state officials for possible Air Force support. An additional eight EPLOs are deploying to various operations and coordination centers in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas, and the FEMA National Response Coordination Center in Washington D.C.
· The AFNORTH Crisis Action Team here is running 24/7 operations to rapidly respond to current and future force movements.
· An Air Defense Emergency Response Plan team has deployed 45 personnel to an alternate location in order to ensure uninterrupted air defense operations continue.
· U.S. Northern Command's Joint Personnel Recovery Center has deployed a Search and Rescue functional experts to support the FEMA Region 6 Defense Coordination Officer/Element.

In addition to support listed above, the 601st Air and Space Operations Center Regional Alert Movement Coordination Center is prepared to stand up to provide coordination to all U.S. military, commercial, governmental and non-governmental flow control into and out of designated airports in areas affected by the storm.

AFNORTH contingency planners will remain on the watch as Hurricane Isaac continues tracking west northwest with an expected landfall occurring early Wednesday morning.