3 Cut and Clear Examples of Team Recovery Efforts

Team Rubicon’s mission is to provide disaster relief to those affected by natural disasters, whether domestic or international. It pairs the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders, medical professionals and technology solutions to provide the greatest service and impact possible.

The organization, which also performs community service work, has been fortunate to have the ongoing support and assistance of local Case Construction Equipment dealers throughout a number of its efforts. This includes three successful operations over the past three months.

Tornado Recovery in Dayton

When an Ef4 tornado touched down late on the night May 27 and traveled 19 miles across the northern part of Dayton, OH, it impacted numerous residential areas. In total, an estimated 1,600 homes were damaged, affecting as many as 10,000 people.

Team Rubicon arrived on the scene on May 31 to conduct damage surveys before transitioning to tree, brush and debris removal efforts in several communities throughout Miami County. In many situations, large trees were saws, removed and cleared using a Case TV380 compact track loader with brush grapple, supplied by Southeastern Equipment. A Team Rubicon-branded SV340 skid-steer loader was also put to use.

Team Rubicon had between 25 and 40 of its volunteers on the ground throughout the tornado recovery operation in the Dayton, OH area.Throughout the operation, the organization had between 25 and 40 of its volunteers on the ground in Dayton. Trained heavy equipment operators, sawyer teams, operational logistics leads and others helped with tree and limb removal, enabling homeowners to begin the process of repair and rebuild. More than 147 work orders were completed with more than 15,000 cu. yds. of debris removed.

“Mother Nature has been pretty aggressive in Ohio and across the Midwest this storm season. This recent flurry of catastrophic tornadoes in Montgomery County is just the latest example,” said Adam Ingram, incident commander for Team Rubicon. “This is the first larger scale response operation we’ve run in Ohio. Our teams are ready to put their skills to use helping these communities stabilize and recover, while restoring some lost hope in these areas along the way.”

Donated Equipment Helps to Rebuild Fire- and Hurricane-damaged Houston Home

CASE & Trekker Group Support Team Rubicon in Home Rebuild for Military Veteran After Hurricane Irma

Land Clearing for Veterans Home

In June, Team Rubicon set about clearing land for a project in Baldwin, MI, that is scheduled to be developed by Habit for Humanity of Lake County Michigan into a Veterans Village development. The development will provide 850- to 1,000-sq.-ft. homes for qualified veterans, active military and spouses of those who have served.

Team Rubicon sent out sawyer teams and heavy equipment operators to clear the area for the Veterans Village development in Baldwin, MI.Historically, Lake County, MI, has been among the most economically disenfranchised regions in the state, with higher than normal unemployment. The result is numerous service needs – including veteran housing – often go unmet. The partnering agencies for the Veterans Village plan for the current development to be part of a multi-year endeavor that will engage Team Rubicon in prepping other sites throughout the community.

For the current project, Team Rubicon sent out sawyer teams and heavy equipment operators to clear the area to allow the first phase to move forward. Case dealer Ina Store supplied a compact track loader and bucket to aid the operation.

“We live, work and have raised families in this region of Michigan, and the opportunity to give back to an ambitious project that will help bring important services to our military veterans was a no-brainer,” said Dean Smallegan, vice president at Ina Store. “We look forward to seeing this project come to life in the coming months and years.”

A Patriot-ic Endeavor

The Patriot North ’19 event, based at Camp Douglas and Volk Field Air National Guard Base in Juneau County, WI, brought more than 70 Team Rubicon representatives and hundreds more from National Guard units, the Salvation Army and other emergency response organizations together to complete community service projects, multi-agency training drills and operator training. Local Case dealer Miller-Bradford & Risberg provided Team Rubicon’s heavy equipment team with TR270 and TV370 compact track loaders with grapple buckets for the exercise.

Miller-Bradford & Risberg provided Team Rubicon’s heavy equipment team with TR270 and TV370 compact track loaders with grapple buckets for the Patriot North ’19 event.At one point, the organization’s heavy equipment unit teamed with the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron of the Kentucky Air National Guard to clear an airfield and enable a C130 Hercules aircraft to land safely.

Team Rubicon staged the simulation by scattering logs and obstacles across the airfield, and later assisted in the cleanup of the exercise after members of the Special Tactics Squadron parachuted onto the airfield with chainsaws to clear the majority of the large debris.

Team Rubicon heavy equipment operators also used the compact track loaders to:

• help with the construction and resurfacing of a local park,
• grade an impassable residential roadway that sustained significant storm damage,
• and work with the organization’s sawyer teams on clearing debris from strategically selected wooded areas.

The objective was to prepare all the agencies in attendance to respond effectively when disaster strikes.

“These Patriot training exercises are critical for multi-agency disaster response readiness and also allow for great community service projects to take place,” said Michel Marchand, vice president – North America, Case Construction Equipment. “It is great that Miller-Bradford was able to help with the heavy lifting by providing the compact track loaders for Team Rubicon’s heavy equipment team during the event.”

Images provided by Case Construction Equipment