ATLANTA — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is coordinating the massive federal response to Hurricane Irma in Florida and Georgia from the agency's operation center in metro Atlanta.
Channel 2’s investigative reporter Aaron Diamant learned Friday that FEMA is just one piece of a complex, coordinated effort to combat Hurricane Irma.
“It’s organized chaos. We’ve been doing this for a few days, and we’ve done it before,” Brandon Bolinski, with FEMA, told Diamant.
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There has been a significant surge in intensity inside the FEMA regional response coordination center in DeKalb County, the heart of the agency’s efforts, as Irma churns closer to Florida and Georgia.
“The right people are here to make decisions and have visibility of what’s going on out in the field,” Bolinski said.
Fifteen agencies represented in the command center are organizing a massive federal effort to provide state and local agencies with critical backup.
“So now, we actually have people, teams, resources deployed, sitting with the state counterparts planning and going through the detailed plans of where they need to be when the storm hits,” Bolinski told Diamant.
So far, at least 7,500 federal personnel have been deployed, with more on the way. Ten urban search and rescue teams have been strategically positioned in Florida and Georgia.
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Crews are ready to disperse nearly 10 million liters of water, more than 5 million meals, 13,000 cots and 41,000 blankets.
Plus, generators and tarps have been pre-staged and are ready to go.
“We’re pretty deep and we’re lucky in that. Some areas, some states don’t have that depth,” Bolinski said.
The agency said it is as prepared as it can possibly be before Irma slams into the U.S.
“During the storm, we’re going to see storm surge, we’re going to see rain, we’re going to see tornadoes, but after that’s the heartbreaking part -- seeing these communities torn apart, and the recovery process is going to take years,” Bolinski said.
While Florida will clearly take the brunt of Irma's wrath, FEMA made it clear that it's not just throwing all its resources that way, with Georgia, Tennessee and even Kentucky and the Carolinas in play.
Cox Media Group
