Army Reserve soldiers to aid in Hurricane Sandy relief efforts

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Osvaldo Equite | A U.S. Army Reserve High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) of the 401st Quartermaster Headquarters Detachment, Lock Haven, Pa., was used to hold down a soft discharge hose while a 600-gallon-per-minute engine pumped water out of Long Beach City High School in Long Beach, N.Y., on Nov. 6, 2012. The Reserve Soldiers were activated and mobilized under the National Defense Authorization Act in support of Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.  

LONG BEACH, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES

11.06.2012

Story by Staff Sgt. Osvaldo Equite 

49th Public Affairs Detachment   

FORT HAMILTON, N.Y. – U.S. Army Reserve soldiers assist local officials and residents affected by Hurricane Sandy in Long Beach, N.Y., on Nov. 6, 2012.

Soldiers of the 401st Quartermaster Headquarters Detachment, Lock Haven, Pa., were activated and mobilized under the National Defense Authorization Act signed into law last year. The act, allows governors to request the help from military reservists in the event of a natural disaster.

“I’m excited for this mission,” said Army Reserve Sgt. Kimberly D. Boyce, a water treatment specialist and squad leader with the detachment. “It shows the people that we don’t just go to war, but we are here for them.”

Boyce, a Williamsport, Pa., native, along with other soldiers from the unit, will be guided through affected areas of the city by local authorities and begin removing water from flooded buildings.

“There was four feet of water throughout town,” explains Cliff Stevens, a senior mechanic engineer, and Albany, N.Y., native, who was tasked to assess the damage done to some of the schools in the city.

In fact, the majority of the schools in the city have water damage leaving many of the boiler rooms inoperable, he explained. This is because a lot of the school’s boiler rooms are located in the grounds lower levels.

Without the boiler rooms functioning, the schools will go without heated air critical in the following months.

The detachment brought six engines – provided by the 99th Equipment Concentration Site, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. – each capable of pumping water at a rate of 600 gallons per minute so as to accomplish the mission.

Although the detachments mission is usually to purify water in adverse conditions, the Soldiers have adapted their equipment in order to help the people of Long Beach.

• Date Taken: 11.06.2012
• Date Posted: 11.07.2012 18:16
• Story ID: 97445
• Location: LONG BEACH, NEW YORK, US
• Hometown: ALBANY, NEW YORK, US
• Hometown: WILLIAMSPORT, PENNSYLVANIA, US