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Hurricane Irene Passes Into NC History

N727CP Cockpit Photo
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N727CP Maj. James K. Shepard flying over Dare Co. North Carolina. Irene seen in the distance – Photo BY: Capt. Matthew T Phillips
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Irene Mission Wrap Up

9/11/2011––The last tasking for NC Wing in response to Hurricane Irene is now complete and all personnel and resources have safely returned to their bases.  A total of 141 CAP members from 3 Regions (MER, SWR, SER), 3 Wings (NC, LA, MS) and MER responded in advance of and in the aftermath of the impact of Hurricane Irene in NC.  Across 3 missions, 8 aircraft flew 32 sorties over 66.8 hours. 

These sorties included evacuation route coverage, communication relay, recon and relocation. Additionally NC and MER CAP resources manned the State Emergency Operations Center and supported multiple Points of Distribution (PODs) in the areas of Eastern and Coastal North Carolina that were severely impacted by Hurricane Irene.  The response to Hurricane Irene is the largest and most sustained deployment of CAP resources in NC in at least 10 years. 

Everyone's efforts were professional, timely and executed in a safe manner.  There will be additional follow up regarding the overall efforts of North Carolina Wing and our other CAP partners in this response.  After action report data will be gathered to allow us to identify areas for improvement and opportunities for additional responses that can be provided. 

If you participated, please take some time to jot down any ideas you have in terms of areas of improvement, areas where we excelled or other suggestions for our future DR response efforts.

 On behalf of the Wing Commander, Major Andy Wings (IC) and the rest of the Incident Command Staff I would like to thank everyone for their dedicated efforts in response to Hurricane Irene.