When the Civil Air Patrol was looking for a home base at Punta Gorda, Florida, to base its emergency management operations, EAA Chapter 565 at Punta Gorda (PDG) was quick to raise its hand and open its doors. Punta Gorda, located on the Gulf Coast near some of the worst damage from Irma, is strategically located, and since the Chapter hangar at PDG didn’t take any major damage, it was an ideal spot. With the help of the EAA Warbird Squadron 24, the CAP found places to tie down their planes and meeting rooms to run logistics.
The Civil Air Patrol is a jack-of-all-trades organization and in this case, the feds needed data. When they asked the CAP for help, they were ready, too. Civil Air Patrol, which has for the past several days been photographing the areas hardest hit by Irma for the feds to use in assessment and resource allocation. The data helps not only send help to where it’s most needed—and where it isn’t—but to document the process in order to better determine response strategy for future storms, though hopefully those storms won’t be here for years to come.
