2 minute read

In a thrilling plot twist more riveting than your grandma’s Sunday crossword, the Civil Air Patrol Geospatial Program’s Damage Assessment Team has joined forces with the mighty Federal Emergency Management Agency. Together, they crusade through mountains of photos and videos to figure out just how crispy California’s wildfires have left the landscape while attempting to drag their feet towards any kind of response or recovery.

The spectacle began on the morning of Jan. 8, igniting Los Angeles and Ventura counties in an inferno that even Hollywood wouldn’t dare script. Almost a week on, and yep, you guessed it, the fires are still going strong. As of Jan. 13, the Fearsome Florida Three from the CAP team, along with their Virginia counterparts, have valiantly clocked about 65 hours—one can only assume the rest was spent on coffee breaks—helping FEMA pinpoint nearly 11,400 structures reduced to rubble in the Eaton, Palisade, and Sunset Hills fires.

“The team has taken on wildfires before—who could forget the Hawaiian barbecue of 2023?—but this was like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube while blindfolded,” mused Maj. Scott Kaplan, national CAP Geospatial Program manager, while polishing his award for masterful understatement.

Yet, despite sitting pretty thousands of miles away from the chaos, the crack team has managed to throw FEMA a lifeline in the form of significant analysis and paperwork, proving that geographical separation is no barrier to bureaucracy.

Drawing conclusions from a myriad of imagery sources—ranging from ground, helicopter, and drone shots (mostly borrowed from news outlets), to urban search and rescue team insights, and even space-age satellite views courtesy of Maxar and BlackSky—the team leaves no stone unturned.

“Each point tagged is like a dramatic snippet from a soap opera, marking stories of lives flipped upside-down,” recounted Maj. Christopher Freeze, a Virginia Wing emergency services officer, with a flourish only paralleled by his courtroom drama aspirations.

The squad’s lightning-speed responses allegedly teleport vital info to federal, state, and local stakeholders like a magic trick, promising victims one less bureaucratic hurdle in reclaiming their normalcy—if normalcy is even on the menu.

The Civil Air Patrol continues to play pretend as Total Force partners and the Air Force’s auxiliary, swooping into action for First Air Force. When it comes to domestic nonmilitary threats, they’re here to save the day, preferably without leaving their desk, in the grand spirit of Defense Support of Civil Authorities operations. Cheers to the paperwork wizards!

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