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Briefing Complete; Outbound Tomorrow

Ohio TERT members met this afternoon at the rally point in Cambridge. The deployment team was met by logistics and support personnel, all of whom have been working to get to the point of deployment. Following invocation by Mark Beros of Stop Nine Church of Christ, Committee Chair Nick DiCicco provided an update to the team. At present, Ohio TERT, along with TERT teams from Florida, Kentucky, and Georgia will be assigned to Buncombe County Public Safety Communications. Reports of damage and supply shortages have been numerous, and breathtaking. The expectation is that telecommunications are still impacted, public utilities are compromised, and many routes still impassible. DiCicco instructed the dispatchers on the team to prepare for 12-16 hour shifts, and once initial training is complete, to be working with a 100% TERT crew from Ohio and other states while Buncombe County personnel get a much needed break.

The team also heard words of thanks from Ohio 911 Program Office Coordinator Patrick Brandt and Ohio DAS Deputy Director of First Responder Communications Initiatives Angela Canepa. The team will depart from Cambridge at 6:30 on Tuesday morning, with an Ohio State Highway Patrol escort to the West Virginia state line.

It is believed that the need for TERT personnel will continue beyond the initial 14 day deployment window. Public safety telecommunicators who are interested in deploying in the near term (this would be mid-October through the end of the month) should contact Committee Chair Nick DiCicco at Nick.DiCicco (at) cvdispatch (dot) com .

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FOR RELEASE: HELENE DEPLOYMENT

SEPTEMBER 29, 2024

Following the landfall of Hurricane Helene, and receipt of a request for help, a team of Ohio 911 dispatchers, radio technicians, and support personnel are heading to North Carolina to lend assistance.

Ohio TERT, part of the national Telecommunicator Emergency Response Taskforce, are a group of public safety personnel from across Ohio who have volunteered for a 14-day deployment to assist local 911 centers whose own personnel have been on duty without break since Helene’s historic rainfall caused catastrophic flooding to interior sections of the U.S. Southeast.

The 19-member team is comprised of members from across the state, and includes personnel from dispatch centers in Strongsville, Urbana, Bedford, Westlake, North Lawrence, Butler and Franklin Counties, and the State of Ohio. They will be assigned to work shifts at centers in the hardest hit communities of Western North Carolina. There, the team will assist in handling the crushing call volume, provide relief to allow home agency personnel time to assess facility damage, and address their own home situations, which were not immune from Helene’s impact. Additionally, radio engineers from Ohio MARCS will lend assistance with stabilizing radio infrastructure and assist in repair operations, where appropriate.

Ohio TERT Chair Nick DiCicco, Director at Chagrin Valley Dispatch near Cleveland, said that Ohio TERT is deploying to do their part to help. “The devastation across Western North Carolina is incomprehensible. We are just doing our part to help where we can.” TERT Team Leader Johnna Sells, from Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security, added, “We’re doing what we can to help our peers. This job is tough enough, and much more so during disasters. This is our chance to show up for each other.”

The team departs Tuesday morning from Cambridge, and expects to arrive in Asheville, North Carolina on that afternoon.

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Ohio TERT is part of the National Joint TERT Initiative. For media inquiries during their deployment, please contact Ohio TERT PIO Mory Fuhrmann at fuhrmannm@mifflin-oh.gov.

 

PDF Version of this Press Release

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Assignment: Helene

The team was initially stood down from a potential deployment to Florida, and no sooner had that message been passed than an EMAC request came through from the North Carolina Emergency Management Agency. Helene’s inland impact has been catastrophic in areas of Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina. Flash flooding has cut off many areas of several states, and even washed away parts of interstate highways.

Ohio TERT has been assigned to report to Catawba County, North Carolina on Tuesday. The team will rally at Cambridge, Ohio on Monday afternoon. They will receive a briefing and invocation, share a dinner with the support team, and department early Tuesday morning. The team’s make-up for this deployment is (19) personnel, and includes dispatchers, line supervisors, and radio technicians from PSAPs across the state as well as Ohio MARCS. In addition to the personnel, the team is taking Chagrin Valley Dispatch’s Type III field communications unit (callsign HAVOC), a cache of (48) radios, a mobile repeater tower, and various stuffs to support the team.

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Preparing for Helene Deployment

Team lead Nick DiCicco briefed the Ohio APCO and NENA boards this afternoon. At this point, the belief is the team will depart on Sunday morning. Florida DEM has transmitted the EMAC request and we have sent back our MRP. We anticipate confirmation of a mission package tomorrow morning. We have assembled a team of (10) personnel from across the state, who are preparing for a (14) day deployment. Further details as they become available.

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Alert Status

The team has been placed on alert status for possible deployment with the anticipated landfall of Hurricane Helene. All team members are requested to check their email for important information and action items.

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