After days of record-breaking rainfall throughout the state of Illinois, many waterways in Northern Illinois were reaching overflow status. Among those was the Fox River and it's tributaries, which led to the first call-out for ILWG CAP resources.
A request for assistance came Thursday, 18 APR, from the Village of Algonquin, located in McHenry County. The request was for assistance in sandbagging operations, and eventually added ground-based assessments on flooded residential areas.
From the time of formal request to the time of first CAP personnel on scene was a little over three hours. Over 25 CAP personnel responded, and were immediately put to work sandbagging critical Public Works infrastructure along the riverfront. Those personnel also worked with village officials from Police and Fire departments to identify the areas most in need of evacuation by those departments.
This Disaster Relief mission continued through Saturday, 20 APR, when it was finally closed out after the river had crested and municipal workers had shored up all their targeted areas. Personnel from ILWG HQ, 3 Groups and over 6 Squadrons assisted this activity, led through the days by 5 CAP Incident Commanders. The CAP incident command post was set up and running one hour after the initial request, as Incident Commander Lt. Col. Robert Taylor, IL-001, received Algonquin's request for assistance from the National Operations Center.
A request for resources was sent out, and a forward base at the Village Public Works facility was established with Capt John-Paul Kilanski, IL-282, assigned as ground branch director. As work continued throughout the evening Kilanski received the Village praises firsthand. "They were only expecting a small group of approximately 5 to 7 members to help. When we showed up with over 20 members, and were able to set up a forward command post that knew how to work in a multiple jurisdictional relationship using NIMS, they were impressed. I was personally impressed by our members who went into a community that had no clue of Civil Air Patrol, or our abilities, and showed them in their time of need the professionalism and resources that CAP brings.
Safety was key here also, seeing IC Taylor himself later assume a shift as Mission Safety Officer. "Due to the river's continued rising and additional rain forecast, first priority was the safety of all CAP responders." Later in the evening, Taylor visited the forward base to see firsthand the "can do" attitude all Illinois Wing members, senior and cadet, exhibited while performing arduous tasks.
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