Clallam County Disaster Airlift Response Team (CCDART) Update

Our CCDART team recently completed an extremely successful Damage Assessment Training Mission over Clallam County on April 26, 2026. The operations are approved by Washington State and Clallam County Emergency Management departments. We were flying pre-programed routes, prepared using ForeFlight flight planning software, with critical waypoints designated by Clallam County Emergency Management (CCEM). From each aircraft, waypoints were photographed by an onboard observer with a cell phone and those photos instantly downloaded to our Operations Center for evaluation and potential use by CCEM. CCDART is recognized as the gold standard for other DART organizations in Washington State.

On June 13, 2026 we will be participating in a mission termed “Thunder Run”, working closely with Emergency Volunteer Air Corps (EVAC) and DART crews flying out of Skagit Regional and Walla Walla airports. In preparation for a possible Cascadia earthquake event, non-perishable foods - simulating medical and other critical supplies - are flown to key airports in western Washington and then distributed to local food banks. Our mission here in Clallam County is to receive these supplies and then distribute them to Sequim, Clallam Bay, and Forks food banks at a September mission working with Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) units. Pilots volunteer their time and personal aircraft to fly all DART missions for training or under actual emergency conditions.

Costco and Grocery Outlet have generously donated much of the non-perishable food supplies to our CCDART training effort. This greatly assists us in our mission. All items are weighed and then gathered for assignment to an aircraft and pilot, flying to a specific airport out of Wm. R. Fairchild International Airport (KCLM), in Port Angeles. At each destination, aircraft are offloaded by CERT volunteers and the supplies picked up by food banks. This is our way of helping to prepare for a major emergency in Clallam County.

David Woodcock CCDART Vice Chair