79th IBCT supports Riverside County winter storm response

Courtesy Photo | A pair of light medium tactical vehicles assigned to the 40th Brigade Support Battalion, 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, California Army National Guard, stage at an incident command post in Lake Elsinore, California, while supporting the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department as a series of winter storms roll across Southern California, Jan. 14-18, 2019. The 79th IBCT sent five high water capable vehicles and a dozen service members to help as civil authorities braced for potential flooding and debris flow as thunderstorms struck in canyons and foothills in and around the Holy Fire burn scar. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Capt. Robert Parry)  

LOS ALAMITOS, CA, UNITED STATES

01.25.2019

Story by Crystal Housman 

California National Guard Primary   

by Senior Airman Crystal Housman
California National Guard Public Affairs

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – Soldiers from the California Army National Guard’s 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team activated to support the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department as a series of winter storms rolled across Southern California, Jan. 14-18.

A dozen soldiers and five high water vehicles – including troopers and a pair of vehicles from the 1st Squadron, 18th Cavalry Regiment, and three vehicles and crews from the 40th Brigade Support Battalion – deployed Jan. 14 to an incident command post in Lake Elsinore, California, and maintained their presence throughout the week as authorities braced for potential floods and debris flow in areas ravaged by the Holy Fire last summer.

More than 1,700 homes in the Lake Elsinore area and nearby canyons and foothills fell under mandatory evacuation orders and another 270 were given voluntary evacuation notices, according to officials with CAL FIRE in Riverside County.

In total, more than 7,000 residents left their homes as the wet weather bore down on the area.

Three storms dropped between five and seven inches of rain throughout the area, a spokesman with the National Weather Service said, with Horse Thief Canyon receiving 7.2 inches for the week.

As the bulk of the storm hit Jan. 17, the soldiers launched four of their trucks to three different staging areas close to where flooding was anticipated. A patrol car followed behind each truck and a sheriff’s deputy embedded with each vehicle’s crew.

Though no further action was needed by the vehicles or crews, they performed the mission admirably.

“Our team did well,” said U.S. Army Capt. James Moore, who commands the 1-18th rear detachment.

Moore noted that his team worked a similar mission for Riverside County in December and that experience is on their side.

“Because the same flooding happened in the area prior, the population and work crews knew what to do in preparation,” Moore said. “The homes that were going to be affected already left or they were able to prepare and protect their property by diverting waterflow.”

Debris flow concerns for the area stem from landscape scarred by the Holy Fire, which started Aug. 6, 2018, in Holy Jim Canyon and burned 23,136 acres in Riverside and Orange Counties before it was contained.

• Date Taken: 01.25.2019
• Date Posted: 01.25.2019 15:25
• Story ID: 308305
• Location: LOS ALAMITOS, CA, US