Military brings in 93,000 meals

By STEVE RANSON

Nevada Appeal News Service

FERNLEY - A joint effort among three military services is providing some relief for Fernley flood victims.

The Nevada Army National Guard delivered more than 93,000 MREs (meals ready to eat) to the North Lyon Fire District's fire station Sunday after picking up the rations at the Fallon Naval Air Station.

Three U.S. Coast Guard C-130 transport planes picked up the MREs at Moffitt Field near San Jose, Calif., and flew them to NAS Fallon to await the 45-minute drive to Fernley.

Cmdr. Luther Hook, operations officer for NAS Fallon, said his facility acted as an intermediate stop for the MREs. He said this is the first time the air station has been involved with a natural disaster situation like this since the 1996-97 floods.

"Each pallet contained 2,304 MREs," said Lt. Mike Woodrum, operations officer with Coast Guard Air Station, Sacramento.

He said the C-130s flew from Sacramento to pick up the rations and then headed to Fallon. One shipment arrived early Sunday morning, while two remaining flights touched down after 1 p.m.

Woodrum said the Coast Guard was requested to fly the MREs to Fallon on Saturday, but the strong storm pounding Northern California and the Sierras prevented their delivery.

"We couldn't get in yesterday (Saturday) because the weather was bad," Woodrum said.

The 593rd Transportation Company based out of the Washoe County Armory north of Reno was tasked with the ground transportation.

Staff Sgt. Patrick Marshal, convoy commander, said his unit was activated on state active duty orders.

"All of our soldiers volunteered for this mission," Marshall said.

Mark Ackerman, a logistician with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Emergency Response Team, said NAS Fallon has been designated a field operational staging area.

Ackerman said once Gov. Jim Gibbons notified FEMA of the state's needs, FEMA then coordinated the transportation of the MREs through the Department of Defense. Ackerman said FEMA also began putting personnel and equipment into place before the storm slammed into California and Northern Nevada.

Assessing the damage

While Ackerman supervised the delivery of MREs to Fallon, his counterparts were in Fernley assessing the damage.

Representatives from FEMA, the American Red Cross and Nevada's Division of Emergency Management surveyed the flooded area from a Nevada Army National Guard CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

Maj. Eric Wade, liaison officer with the National Guard, said the FEMA damage assessment team arrived in Fernley on Sunday and wanted to look at the affected area from the air.

For 30 minutes the team circled the damaged levee, which broke Saturday morning, and the flooded homes.

"We were looking for damage to individual homes, roads, schools and the infrastructure," said Rick Martin, recovery and mitigation manager for DEM.

He said the assessment team will document their findings and cost estimates to restore the area to its pre-disaster condition. Martin said the information will be forward to the governor and then to FEMA's regional office in Oakland. FEMA then submits its report to President George W. Bush who may or may not declare Lyon County a federal disaster area.

"We saw a lot of mud, debris and water. We saw people trying to get back into their homes," Martin said. "A lot of homes are damaged."

Martin said debris must be removed from the homes and surrounding area. The extent of the flooding surprised Martin.

"It looks like the water spread out," he said. "It was more extensive than I imagined."

Martin said two more teams consisting of federal, state and local agencies will conduct additional assessments of the affected homes and businesses including the Cottonwood Elementary School today.

Wade also said local officials surveyed the flooded area from an OH-58 Kiowa helicopter. Wade said the helicopter has a full-motion video system located in the aircraft's nose.

He said the video is simultaneously transmitted to the Joint Operation Center in Carson City for personnel there to see.

• Steve Ranson is the sports editor for the Lahontan Valley News and a member of the Nevada Army National Guard in which he serves as public affairs officer for Joint Forces Headquarters.