Wisconsin Flood Relief Initial Awareness Assessment

Mission system operator Lt Col Tim Howell from the 186th Air Refueling Wing, Meridian, MS operates a console aboard an RC-26 aircraft specifically designed for viewing and transmitting high quality video and still imagery to military and civilian Operations Centers in real-time. This capability gives military commanders and civilian first responders a bird's eye view of significant events as they happen. Working with several state agencies along with the Wisconsin Air National Guard, the Mississippi Air National Guard RC-26 demonstrated the benefits of this new capability during an initial flood assessment mission in southern Wisconsin on June 10th, 2008. The crew of this RC-26 flew above the flood stricken region transmitting real-time imagery to the Wisconsin Joint Operations Center (JOC) and the Wisconsin Emergency Operations Center (WEOC) in addition to other agencies. This imagery was used to asses the integrity of several area Dams in addition to flood damage assessment in the hardest hit regions of the southern half of the state.