SOUTHCOM deploys disaster assessment team to Nicaragua

Photo By Erika Yepsen | U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Vernon Cohrs, Joint Task Force-Bravo public affairs non-commissioned officer in charge, helps load supplies on a CH-47 Chinook helicopter Sept. 5. Cohrs is part of a nine-member assessment team deployed to Nicaragua from Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras. The team will provide damage assessment following Hurricane Felix which made landfall in Central America Sept. 4. The assessment team will provide feedback for possible assistance to the country. The team is made up of medical, communications and engineering personnel from Joint Task Force-Bravo. (U.S. Air Force photo/Martin Chahin)  

09.05.2007

Story by Erika Yepsen 

U.S. Southern Command

by 1st Lt. Erika Yepsen
Joint Task Force-Bravo Public Affairs Office

SOTO CANO AIR BASE, Honduras - A nine-member disaster assessment team and a CH-47 Chinook from Joint Task Force-Bravo, based at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras, deployed today to Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Felix.

The team is comprised of engineering, communications and medical personnel.

Adm. James Stavridis, Commander of U.S. Southern Command, directed the deployment.

JTF-Bravo, the only forward-deployed U.S. Southern Command unit with permanently assigned U.S. military personnel, is a first responder to crises in the region, and routinely conducts humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, search and rescue, personnel recovery and non-combatant medical evacuation operations.

JTF-Bravo, the only U.S. Southern Command component with permanently assigned U.S. military personnel, is a first responder to crises in the region, and routinely conducts humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, search and rescue, personnel recovery and non-combatant medical evacuation operations.

U.S. Southern Command military planners will continue to work with inter-agency partners and their counterparts in countries affected by Felix to assess recovery needs in the affected areas and identify U.S. military units that may be able to provide assistance.

Additional information about U.S. Southern Command hurricane relief efforts will be released as it becomes available and will be posted at www.southcom.mil.

• Date Taken: 09.05.2007
• Date Posted: 09.05.2007 15:23
• Story ID: 12203