(Savannah Now) – More than 40 local soldiers have been sent to Texas to support federal disaster relief efforts after Hurricane Harvey brought “catastrophic” flooding to Houston and severe damage across the state’s coast.
The soldiers, who serve in the Fort Stewart-based 63rd Expeditionary Signal Battalion of the U.S. Army’s 35th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade, took off Tuesday morning, heading in a U.S. Air Force C-17 from Hunter Army Airfield to Lackland Air Force Base. They will join other military and civilian federal units at Joint Base San Antonio.
There, the battalion’s C company will be providing network support, such as ensuring communications capabilities, for the relief effort being led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Several of the soldiers in the company are from Texas or have relatives in the area.
“This is very personal, and we are there to do our absolute best and provide whatever support we can,” said Lt. Col. Indira Rice Donegan, the battalion’s commander.
Harvey has dumped more than 2 1/2 feet of rain in parts of Texas, and first responders have rescued thousands of stranded people, according to The Associated Press.
The military response to the hurricane so far is massive. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott activated all 12,000 Texas National Guard troops on Monday for hurricane relief, and the U.S. Department of Defense had been staging units ahead of Tuesday.
“Continuing rainfall from the hurricane is expected to cause devastating and life-threatening flooding throughout this week,” Army Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a news briefing Monday, according to a Department of Defense recap.
There are at least 16 Texas Guard aircraft being used for search-and-rescue operations in addition to six U.S. Coast Guard aircraft and several others flying in from different states. On top of that, there were at least 400 ground vehicles being used by the Texas Guard early this week, Manning said Monday in the news conference.
The 38th Battalion is trained specifically for issues like disaster response, Donegan said. Its soldiers are ready to deploy within two hours and must be on the ground within 24 hours once orders are issued, she said.
The local soldiers will be in Texas “until the requirement no longer exists,” Donegan said Tuesday.
