The Iowa Wing of the Civil Air Patrol is on standby for possible help with the recovery efforts in Texas from Hurricane Rita. Major Doug Jansen says they’d been ready for a full response, but it appears that won’t be needed. He says since Rita didn’t hit the Galveston and Houston areas as hard as it could have, the recovery effort won’t need as many “assets”, which he says is good news.

Jansen says federal officials are still sorting out things to determine if they’ll be needed. He says an aircraft and communications team are standing by if needed. If they are called, Jansen says they give recovery officials an bird’s eye view of what’s going on. He says they’ll provide aerial damage assessment of areas that’ve been flooded or damaged to determine when they’re ready to bring people back in. He says they’ll also help find areas where supplies can be unloaded for distribution.

Jansen says they did some of this work during the first hurricane. He says during Katrina they also did welfare checks on people in Mississippi, going door-to-door to see if people where still there. He says they were the first people many victims saw after Katrina. He says since so many people were evacuated he doesn’t think they’ll have to do that for Rita victims. Jansen says they will provide communications support if needed. He says they can set up communications equipment that gives them long-distance radio coverage to help with the recovery effort.