Florida Wing Tackles Pre-Storm Tasking from FEMA

Florida Wing standard hurricane procedures ahead of storm arrival includes moving aircraft and ground vehicles to safe locations to protect them and have them ready to be moved in response mission status as soon as it is safe to take on tasking from state and federal agencies.

Acting as a Total Force partner and official civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, Civil Air Patrol helps First Air Force rapidly respond to nonmilitary threats domestically in a Defense Support of Civil Authorities capacity to save lives, relieve suffering, prevent property damage, and provide humanitarian assistance.

With the uncertainty of where Hurricane Ian would actually make landfall, Florida Wing delayed early relocation, which was an exceptionally wise decision since the storm took a sharp turn changing course from a predicted landfall range from Tampa through to the big bend to an actual landfall at Fort Myers/Cape Coral, which is considerably south of the initial predictions.

Just a few days ahead of Hurricane Ian’s landfall, Florida Wing, including Marco Island Squadron, received a tasking request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for aerial photos of the entire west coast of the state to have updated imagery of the coastline to use for comparison to post-storm imagery to assess storm damage.

Although this was a short notice request, Civil Air Patrol was able to provide FEMA with the requested imagery and still safely relocate aircraft before the storm. Marco Island volunteer members, who were also preparing themselves and their homes for the storm, stepped up to assure these important pre-storm images and aircraft relocations were completed well before Hurricane Ian made landfall.

Florida Wing mission incident commander Lt. Col. Sam Chiodo said, “We are very proud of our volunteers for being able to fully accomplish the mission sorties in such a short period of time while they were preparing themselves for the arrival of a major storm with an unpredictable path.” 

Marco Island Squadron is proud to continue its support of Marco Island and Southwest Florida communities.