Post disaster relief flights

[AggieMike88]

What media or internet channel can a pilot or aircraft owner monitor for requests of relief flights?

I know we can load up our aircraft with supplies and head to the area on our own. But where can we find info to be part of a coordinated effort?

 

[paflyer]

What media or internet channel can a pilot or aircraft owner monitor for requests of relief flights?

I know we can load up our aircraft with supplies and head to the area on our own. But where can we find info to be part of a coordinated effort?

Red Cross? FEMA?

 

[Velocity173]

FEMA / Red Cross. They have us on standby right now awaiting word. Doubt we go.

 

[murphey]

What media or internet channel can a pilot or aircraft owner monitor for requests of relief flights?

I know we can load up our aircraft with supplies and head to the area on our own. But where can we find info to be part of a coordinated effort?

Please don't.

If you aren't already part of a coordinated & authorized group, please don't. A serious problem with any emergency is Enthusiastic Helpers & Do-Gooders Getting in the Way. These are people with good intentions but no knowledge of coordinated emergency procedures or protocols. Drones are also in this category.

Red Cross, FEMA, CAP, AngelFlight (all wings) and local governments have LOA/MOUs & agreed upon procedures to integrate with each other. They train and practice these procedures. Example - after 9/11, AngelFlight was activated on standby for blood transports within the US - activated but no one flights were ever performed. In the Gulf when the BP oil disaster happened, the 2013 floods in Colorado, and other disasters, local CAPs were activated for extensive photo shoots and location of stranded people.

Regardless of the somewhat hostile attitude towards CAP around here on POA, it really does serve a useful and cost-effective purpose. Let CAP do the boring up & down search patterns to find the lost airplane/hikers/whatever and pinpoint the location, so the professional SAR groups don't waste time looking everywhere.

Your best bet, unless a request goes to the general public, is donate blood and/or donate money.

 

[Velocity173]

Please don't.

If you aren't already part of a coordinated & authorized group, please don't. A serious problem with any emergency is Enthusiastic Helpers & Do-Gooders Getting in the Way. These are people with good intentions but no knowledge of coordinated emergency procedures or protocols. Drones are also in this category.

Red Cross, FEMA, CAP, AngelFlight (all wings) and local governments have LOA/MOUs & agreed upon procedures to integrate with each other. They train and practice these procedures. Example - after 9/11, AngelFlight was activated on standby for blood transports within the US - activated but no one flights were ever performed. In the Gulf when the BP oil disaster happened, the 2013 floods in Colorado, and other disasters, local CAPs were activated for extensive photo shoots and location of stranded people.

Regardless of the somewhat hostile attitude towards CAP around here on POA, it really does serve a useful and cost-effective purpose. Let CAP do the boring up & down search patterns to find the lost airplane/hikers/whatever and pinpoint the location, so the professional SAR groups don't waste time looking everywhere.

Your best bet, unless a request goes to the general public, is donate blood and/or donate money.

Well, if he remains outside of the inevitable TFRs that will be coming (Corpus), it shouldn't be a problem. Not sure if FEMA or the Red Cross will have something setup for volunteer pilots, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[onezuludelta]

Please don't.

If you aren't already part of a coordinated & authorized group, please don't. A serious problem with any emergency is Enthusiastic Helpers & Do-Gooders Getting in the Way. These are people with good intentions but no knowledge of coordinated emergency procedures or protocols. Drones are also in this category.

Your best bet, unless a request goes to the general public, is donate blood and/or donate money.

ALL. OF. THIS. Please.

(This is a general rant, and not a specific response to your admirable concern and desire to help @AggieMike88 )

No, it doesn't hurt to ask, but above is the best answer. Donate, or volunteer for the Red Cross or something similar. That would have FAR more of an impact than one planeload of potentially-useless supplies ending up somewhere close by, but outside of the impact zone without any clear idea of what the supplies are, who they could help, where they need to go, and how they would get there and fit into the overall relief effort.

I know it seems frustrating to watch from the sidelines, and I know it seems like there are bungled relief efforts, but the hardest part of disaster operations is the intelligence and logistics, figuring out what the need is and how to fulfill it, and there are currently thousands of professionals preparing for just that. Disasters are, well, disasters, so it never runs 100% smoothly, but believe me, everything that can be done is being done.

 

[Flyhound]

Our local country Emergency Operations Center is working to incorporate a Disaster Airlift Response Plan, DARP, that will use GA as part of emergency management operations. There are requirements for pilots and planes to qualify. This is part of a national program that is optional for emergency response organizations to use. I'd suggest contacting your county's emergency operations center and talk to them.

 

[midwestpa24]

As an emergency responder myself, I have to agree with letting the professionals do their thing, and if you see a request for volunteers go that route. Do not, I repeat, do not just show up unannounced or without coordination and planning.

In the emergency response world, we have a command and communication structure to help control the assets and resources that are in place. When outsiders show up unannounced, and unrequested, it just complicates matters, causes duplication of effort, and stresses already strained resources.

Believe me, as a responder myself, and a Katrina survivor, I am dying to go and help. But I would never show up myself without coordination with those in charge of the area.

 

[Fearless Tower]

FEMA / Red Cross. They have us on standby right now awaiting word. Doubt we go.

As nasty as FEMA gets when the military tries to assist, I'd be surprised if they welcomed any volunteer pilots 'helping' out.

Rice bowls are a very real thing.

 

[Velocity173]

As nasty as FEMA gets when the military tries to assist, I'd be surprised if they welcomed any volunteer pilots 'helping' out.

Rice bowls are a very real thing.

I don't know if FEMA resists military assistance. They actually ask for it. We flew FEMA around the Outer Banks after Irene went through the very next day. They were more than pleased with our support. Coworker is National Guard and is on standby right now to support FEMA.

It does become a fiasco though when too many aircraft are trying to assist one centralized area.

 

[onezuludelta]

As nasty as FEMA gets when the military tries to assist, I'd be surprised if they welcomed any volunteer pilots 'helping' out.

I don't know if FEMA resists military assistance. They actually ask for it. We flew FEMA around the Outer Banks after Irene went through the very next day. They were more than pleased with our support. Coworker is National Guard and is on standby right now to support FEMA.
It does become a fiasco though when too many aircraft are trying to assist one centralized area.

Yeah, that's about the silliest thing I've ever heard. FEMA is a coordination agency; they coordinate the efforts of other groups/agencies/assets. They don't have helicopters; the Guard does. They don't have drones;CBP does. They don't have fixed-wing; CAP does. Before a coming disaster, they gather everyone in a Regional (or National) Response Coordination Center, where everyone is represented, including the military.

 

[Scott@KTYR]

What media or internet channel can a pilot or aircraft owner monitor for requests of relief flights?

I know we can load up our aircraft with supplies and head to the area on our own. But where can we find info to be part of a coordinated effort?

I wish there was a organization that would do this. From the post on this thread it does not look like there is one. To bad, but I can see their point. Private Pilots come in all different skill levels and abilities. It is hard to tell if a pilot can handle the situation that could popup when trying to help. For example a brand new pilot compared to a many year pilot with high winds on a cross wind landing. It would be hard to tell if a volunteer pilot has the ability unless some organization had previously tested the pilot and knew of his or her abilities.

 

[Fearless Tower]

I don't know if FEMA resists military assistance. They actually ask for it. We flew FEMA around the Outer Banks after Irene went through the very next day. They were more than pleased with our support. Coworker is National Guard and is on standby right now to support FEMA.

To clarify, it depends a lot on whether the assistance is already under an assigned contract or something that could be assigned to a contractor.

I may sound cynical, but I personally saw it unfold during Hurricane Sandy, they get real pi$$ed when the military is doing something that is covered under a contract. Even if the military is able to do it days before the contractor can get to it.

During Sandy, while there were people crying out for help on Long Island and Staten Island, we were being told 'Thanks, but no thanks'.

 

[Fearless Tower]

Yeah, that's about the silliest thing I've ever heard. FEMA is a coordination agency; they coordinate the efforts of other groups/agencies/assets.

It isn't silly...it's downright maddening. FEMA coordinates the contracts (aka 'rice bowls').

For those who aren't familiar, FEMA has contracts in place in advance for disaster relief/response stuff. Basically contractors already identified to do things like down tree removal. Street and waterway clearing, dewatering of homes....etc. It is that contract stuff that you need to be careful about encroaching on because they will get nasty with you for 'stealing their money' even if you can do it much quicker and more efficiently than the contractor.

You don't ever want to get in between a govt contractor and his money and unfortunately, there is a lot of money to be made during other people's suffering.