CTWG: Hurricane Earl Press Release #2

PRESS RELEASE

2 September, 2010

Connecticut Wing Headquarters, Civil Air Patrol
United States Air Force Auxiliary
Public Affairs Office
Middletown, CT 06457

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Connecticut’s Civil Air Patrol positioned to assist Federal and State Authorities in Hurricane Earl disaster relief efforts

September 2, 2010 (Middletown, CT) – Connecticut’s Civil Air Patrol working in cooperation with the State’s Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security has pre-positioned its multi-purpose aircraft and have notified it’s staff and ground search & disaster services members they are now on call should State or Federal agencies request their assistance.

Over the coming days, Connecticut’s 700 volunteer members, located at 13 squadrons throughout the state will be on standby for deployment. Connecticut’s membership base consists of both adults and cadets age 12 to 20 trained for either air or ground search and rescue or disaster services operations.

The Civil Air Patrol, a multi-capability all volunteer organization is often tasked with storm related missions that include air and ground search and rescue, disaster center services, searching for stranded survivors, monitoring of evacuation routes, digital imagery assessments of storm related damage and critical infrastructure impacts as well as air and ground transportation of critical personnel, medicines, materials and supplies.

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U. S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with 59,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and saves an average of 80 lives per year. It’s volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the nearly 24,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for more than 69 years. For more information on CAP, visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com, or the Connecticut Wing at www.CTWG.cap.gov

Additional Connecticut Wing Press Releases will be released as conditions develop. The releases will be posted to the Connecticut Wing blog page, www.AlwaysVigilant.blogspot.com.