Photo by Maj. John Adams, 143rd Expeditionary Command
LEFT: Lt. Gen. Jeffrey W. Talley, chief of Army Reserve and commanding general, U.S. Army Reserve Command, talks with local officials Nov. 11, 2012, about the devastation caused form Hurricane Sandy in Breezy Point, N.Y. Talley toured areas most affected by the storm and visited Army Reserve Soldiers from the 401st, 410th, and 431st Quartermaster Detachments who were all conducting water removal operations.
By Staff Sgt. Shawn Morris
99th Regional Support Command
JOINT BASE MCGUIREDIX-LAKEHURST, N.J.
Photo by Maj. John Adams, 43rd Expeditionary Command
BELOW: Sgt. Kimberly Boyce, water purification specialist, 401st Quartermaster Detachment, discusses the best way to remove water out of a Rockaway, N.Y basement with Carlos Malgonado, Redfern Housing complex grounds supervisor. Residents at the complex had been without power since Hurricane Sandy hit the week before.
vailable support for disaster relief is the network of Army Reserve facilities that is woven throughout the nation’s local communities and can serve a myriad of functions before, during and after a catastrophic event. “One of the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina (in 2005) was to identify what reserve-component facilities, equipment and
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forces are available in the event of a natural disaster,” explained Maj. Gen. William D. Razz Waff, commanding general of the Army Reserve’s 99th Regional Support Command at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., and Fort Devens, Mass. The 99th RSC controls more than 350 Army Reserve facilities throughout its 13-state area of responsibility, which stretches from Maine to Virginia. While many of these centers were themselves threatened by Hurricane Sandy, they were also in a perfect position to offer much-needed assistance to local communities. “In Breezy Point, the New York City Fire Department asked if they could keep some equipment there in the parking lot and storage area (of our facility),” said Waff. “This was an extremely difficult fire to fight because of waist-high flooded roadways and strong sustained winds,” said FDNY Spokesperson Frank Dwyer of the six-alarm fire that ultimately destroyed 111 homes in Breezy Point. “Staging areas were critical to safely operate, to continue to bring in additional resources and to maneuver those resources to the most beneficial positions for fighting this fire.”