Airman shares story of family, service in wake of natural disasters
Airman shares story of family, service in wake of natural disasters
ROOSEVELT ROADS,
"Since I was a child, my family would always stock pile food and water in preparation for the hurricane season," said Capt.
That's exactly what Hurricane Irma did after devastating the
In the wake of Hurricane Irma, Ocasio and his team were sent to the
After the assessments were complete, the team went to
He spent several nights in
"Fear, anger, abandonment are a few things I felt when I had to leave
According to Puerto Rican Governor
The night the storm made landfall, Ocasio was in constant contact with his mother and sister until around
"I didn't sleep at all that night," Ocasio said. "I was getting messages from my sister saying how the kids were scared, and how they had experienced nothing like this before. This was only the first hours of the storm, I knew they still had another eight hours to go. it was terrifying."
After Ocasio lost contact with his family, he attached himself to the news and social media, trying to get any information he could to paint a better picture of what was going on in
"My family lives in a lowlands area, and you see the videos of the massive flooding online and you immediately think, 'They have to leave the house during the storm and fight the dangerous winds to get to higher ground,'" he said. "Then you start creating all these scenarios in your mind that could happen, but are probably not."
After Hurricane Maria passed, the assessment team was tasked to reassess the airfield in
"When they told me I was going to
Once the team was finished in
"As soon as I landed, I went to check on my family," he said. "When I drove up to my sister's house, she was outside trying to get leftover water from the pipes. She didn't recognize me until I got out the car, and she immediately got emotional. Then my nephew came over and gave me a hug and started crying as well. It was just a total relief seeing them and knowing they were okay."
Once he knew his family was okay, he wanted to be hands-on with any type of operations assisting
"My family was safe," Ocasio said as he smiled. "Now I just wanted to help, so I drove to Roosevelt Roads where I knew there would be a contingency response element arriving in a couple days. I performed an airfield assessment and started creating relationships with the other agencies already on the ground."
When the contingency response element arrived from
"After all his family had just gone through with Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria devastating the island, he was still here ready to complete the mission," said Lt. Col.
Since arriving in
"By performing assessments on three of the four major airports in
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FEMA’s final Hurricane Irma disaster assistance program planned at FSCJ Kent Campus
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