Clallam County Emergency Management Disaster Airlift Response Team

UNDER DEVELOPMENT Attention all local Clallam County private pilots who own airplanes. I am in the process of reviving an effort I previously embarked upon several years ago but could not complete due to issues with the State DOT. I am working with an excellent disaster relief program for volunteer private pilots that is run by volunteers and will assist County disaster relief activities in the event of a major event such as an earthquake or tsunami. This is nothing short of a major life saving program and we need your involvement. We are implementing a program developed in California some years ago called a DARP or Disaster Airlift Response Program. To carry out a DARP program we establish a DART or Disaster Airlift Response Team. (Sorry for the acronyms but you are pilots and should be used that by now.) This is where you come in. There are several DART’s operating in California and similar programs have assisted many large scale earthquake and weather related disasters. The beauty of establishing a DART is that in time of need, if our local pilots are overwhelmed, we can request assistance from other DARTs from other areas and they can respond using the same procedures and plans that we have to we can all work together quickly and efficiently. We are the first jurisdiction in Washington State to organize a DART and DARP and will be leading the way for other jurisdictions to follow when we have successfully implemented ours. This critical component to save lives and assist in multiple ways our friends and neighbors to survive a major event depends on your willingness to get involved.

To kick this off, we are having a special presentation just for local volunteer pilots on Tuesday, March 28th at 1:00 pm in the Emergency Operations Room on the lower floor of the Clallam County Courthouse. I will be outlining this program and how you can get involved along with a gentleman whose name is aptly Sky Terry who has many years’ experience in this field and has established Disaster Relief plans for the Seaplane Pilots who have their own distinct and unique considerations. He will give some history of these programs and share his experiences as to how they operate and how crucial they are to helping as many as possible survive in a critical time of need. Make no mistake about it. The time will come where emergency preparedness will be all that matters for a period of time and you have the opportunity to do what only you can do.

You will be asked to do just what you are trained to do, fly your airplanes to and from designated locations for missions such as:

• Transfer of displaced persons
• Area recon
• Food airlifts
• Move emergency workers
• Move ambulatory medical patients
• Other duties as assigned. There are a lot of details as to how we form this and how you get involved along with establishing subgroups consisting of rotary wing, seaplanes and fixed wing, etc. This will be covered in detail at this presentation. And yes….more acronyms…lots more acronyms to come but I will pass those along judiciously over time. You’ll love it. One last thing: I need leadership for this program to function. I am looking for a Chairman and Vice Chairman and some other positions yet to be determined to get involved from the beginning and who will be in charge of mobilizing this program in time of need. It is a commitment to your community and we need dedicated leaders. If you are willing to help and take a leadership role, please call me and let’s talk about it. I need your commitment as soon as possible. Thanks in advance for your willingness to get involved!

Please email me at abarnard@olypen.com to let me know that you will be attending so we will have the set up ready. If you have more questions you can call me at 360-461-0175. PLEASE PLAN TO BE THERE AND TO GET INVOLVED. LIVES ARE AT STAKE AND YOU HAVE A HUGE PART TO PLAY IN SAVING THEM. IT’S NOT A MATTER OF IF BUT WHEN!

Alan