Members of a North Carolina incident management team that has been serving in Hawaii since May 19 returned home this weekend, and a larger team of 14 North Carolina emergency managers has replaced them.
The new team will divide into two shifts and will continue helping the Hawaii County Civil Defense agency staff its local emergency operations center on a 24-hour basis. For the past two weeks, North Carolina emergency managers have been helping their Hawaii counterparts plan and coordinate evacuations, sheltering and logistics, as lava from the Kilauea volcano continues to erupt from fissures and flow toward the ocean.
The new team departed North Carolina on Friday, while the returning team left Hawaii Saturday and arrived home Sunday.
The new team is comprised of four planning and operations staffers from NC Emergency Management, eight county emergency managers from Anson, Beaufort, Chatham, Cleveland, Hertford, New Hanover and Union counties, and fire officials from Greenville and Greensboro. One member from the original team is remaining for another two weeks.
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