In September 2019, my urban search and rescue task force was sent to North Carolina to assist with Hurricane Dorian.

Hurricane Dorian was an extremely powerful and catastrophic Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, which became the most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the Bahamas, and tied for strongest landfall in the Atlantic basin. It is also regarded as the worst natural disaster in the Bahamas' recorded history. It was also one of the most powerful hurricanes recorded in the Atlantic Ocean in terms of 1-minute sustained winds, with those winds peaking at 185 mph (295 km/h). In addition, Dorian surpassed Hurricane Irma of 2017 to become the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record outside of the Caribbean Sea. Dorian was the fourth named storm, second hurricane, the first major hurricane, and the first Category 5 hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season. Dorian struck the Abaco Islands on September 1 with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph (295 km/h), tying with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane for the highest wind speeds of an Atlantic hurricane ever recorded at landfall. ... After it ravaged through the Bahamas, Dorian proceeded along the coasts of the Southeastern United States and Atlantic Canada, leaving behind considerable damage and economic losses in those regions.

We always find interesting ways to get to disasters - on this one, they sent 3 taskforces together on a private plane. Before you think that it was a golf stream - each task force was about 40 people or 120 people total + our K9 partners. Think: a Southwest plane to ourselves. Nevertheless, it was very cool flying with only teammates and with my pocketknife for a change. Of course, the downside was the middle seat for 6 hours after being awake for 20 hours already that day...

I would be remised if I didn't mention that I was literally pulled off a Jet Ski on Lake Camanche for Labor Day weekend - to deploy. Thanks again to Justin and our team Doc for hooking me up with topical steroids for the nasty sunburn that came with me!!

Often on these deployments we are asked to stage ahead of the storm - and thankfully, this time, all we had to do was stage since the hurricane's impact wasn't bad in North Carolina. We were sent to our "Westin-Shelter", The Westin Charlotte (Hotel). We held many prep meetings taking over the lobby and conference areas - and even using our rooms for break-out meetings. Some of us got to see Petey Pablo around the hotel, as he was performing for the Panthers game that weekend. We also took the opportunity to check out the local fare (shown is our top-notch Plans/Tech Info/Comm/"PIO"/Safety crew).

We walked around and took many city tours for situational awareness in-case something did happen. Including a quick check of the Bank of America Stadium - where the Carolina Panthers play. Obviously, that could be a strategic resource for us should a large staging center be needed. You can also see a shot of our tireless Logs team hard at work at the Charlotte Airport.

Usually, I deploy as a Technology/Communication Specialist. This particular deployment was Type 3 - meaning a reduced team size of only 1 Comm spot on the roster. However, because it was also one of the first times we were going with our new iPad cache and App-based Geo-Spatial search software, and since I was primary for our iPads - the Task Force Leader specifically asked me to go as one of the extras we're allowed - to A) serve as a "PIO-light" (Public Information Officer), and B) help with the Tech (as-needed). It worked out well, because we used the downtime before the storm to do mock search training and classroom + hands-on training of the new GPS app. This gave me plenty of material to send back to our sponsoring agency and FEMA. I was honored when they used my copy (verbatim) and our photos for their official posts on IG, Twitter, and their dot gov sites. The K9 Dogs always make a good story!