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Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin and the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management announced that Oklahoma is sending swift water rescue teams to Texas to assist in the ongoing Tropical Storm Harvey response efforts.

Fourteen swift water rescue and Urban Search and Rescue teams and one management team from the Oklahoma Disaster Task Force deployed this morning to southeast Texas. The teams consist of 30 boats and 83 personnel from Washington County Emergency Management; Broken Arrow Emergency Management; Bryan County Swift Water Rescue Team; Coal County Swift Water Team; Mayes County Task Force 1; Oklahoma City USAR; Pittsburg County Water Rescue Team; Quapaw Tribe Fire; Muscogee (Creek) Nation Emergency Response Team; Tulsa Fire Department USAR; Tulsa Police Department Disaster Area Response Team; Grand River Dam Authority; Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation; and Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

The Oklahoma teams will help support the Texas Division of Emergency Management with water rescues as the state continues to respond to the devastating flooding that has already occurred, and the additional rainfall and flooding expected due to the ongoing tropical storm.

The teams are deploying through the Interstate Emergency Response Support Plan, a regional mutual aid agreement for Federal Emergency Management Agency Region 6 states, and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. EMAC is a national mutual aid system that allows states to send personnel, equipment and commodities to help disaster relief efforts in other states. The state-to-state system was developed after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and was established in 1996.

OEM is working with Texas to send OK-IMT, the state Incident Management Team, later this week to assist with resource distribution and other assignments. OK-IMT includes 12 personnel from Moore Emergency Management, Oklahoma County Emergency Management, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Oklahoma State Department of Health, Oklahoma State University Fire Service Training, Sapulpa Fire Department and Tulsa Fire Department. Additionally, two OEM personnel deployed Friday to serve as an EMAC advance team at the TDEM emergency operations center to assist with coordinating out of state resources.

OEM continues to monitor additional requests from the affected areas. Further support may be deployed if needed.

Additional Oklahoma organizations responding to the impacted areas include volunteers from the American Red Cross, Children’s Disaster Services, Convoy of Hope, Mercy Chefs, Operation BBQ Relief, the Salvation Army and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.