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USA: FEMA personnel and emergency supplies ready to respond quickly to hurricane Dennis

Release number: R4-05-107
ATLANTA, Ga. -- Hundreds of U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) workers are leaning forward at pre-positioned locations throughout Florida, Alabama and Mississippi and Georgia to assist disaster victims as quickly as possible after Hurricane Dennis makes landfall along the Gulf coast.

More than 150 advance personnel from almost a dozen federal and volunteer agencies responsible for Emergency Support Functions under the National Response Plan, are working at the Regional Response Coordination Center (RRCC) in Atlanta.In addition, many of the FEMA employees involved with long-term recovery operations in Florida are standing by to help with activities related to Hurricane Dennis.

  • More that 250 members of three Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) and four Disaster Medical Assistance (DMAT) and Medical Strike Teams (MST) are standing by at the Naval Air Station in Meridian and in Jackson, Miss., for immediate deployment. These highly trained, specialized teams will be ready to rapidly support local first responders and provide critical services, if needed, after the hurricane strikes. Three additional USAR teams with more than 125 members are in route for pre-staging today.

  • U.S. Forest Service Incident Management Teams (IMT) have deployed to Tallahassee, Fla., and Atlanta, Ga., to manage logistics staging areas.

  • FEMA's Hurricane Liaison Team, made up of representatives from FEMA, the National Weather Service and state and local emergency officials, is providing state and local decision makers with critical updates on storm conditions.\

  • Approximately 200 semi-trailer trucks loaded with essential supplies such as water, ice, meals ready-to-eat (MREs), tarps and generators are in place at key staging areas in Florida, Georgia and Alabama with other supplies in the pipeline for delivery.

  • Additional truckloads of water and MREs have been loaded and shipped from federal warehouse facilities at Palmetto, Ga., and others staged to travel as soon as weather permits.

  • Federal responders are co-located with their state emergency management agency counterparts evaluating the need for emergency supplies as Hurricane Dennis strengthens.

FEMA prepares the nation for all hazards and manages the federal response and recovery efforts following an incident of national significance. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, trains first responders, workers with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.