UPDATE: Florida Forest Service Provides 7.6 Million Bottles of Water, 1.8 Million Meals to Texans

Tallahassee, Fla. — The Florida Forest Service’s Green Incident Management Team continues operations at the Resource Staging Area (RSA) at Randolph Air Force Base Auxiliary Airport near San Antonio, sending trucks carrying water and meals to residents in need in over 100 Texas counties.

UPDATED TOTALS: With more accurate inventory tracking, and in collaboration with Texas A&M Forest Service, the Texas Department of Emergency Management, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 235 trucks of water containing 3,995 pallets totaling 197,760 cases equaling 7,670,400 bottles of water have been sent out from the RSA. 88 trucks of Meals Ready to Eat (MRE’s) containing 2,992 pallets totaling 149,600 cases equaling 1,795,200 meals have also been sent out. To date, 67 counties throughout Texas have received water and 39 counties have received MRE’s. A total of 73 counties have received either water or food from the RSA relief with multiple counties receiving both water and food. The 24-hour operation of the RSA supplies FEMA trucks with loads of water and MRE’s to deliver to counties throughout Texas.

PHOTOS/VIDEO: Photos and video of Green IMT personnel in action may be found here.

“Knowing the severity of the winter storm’s impact on our friends in Texas and being able to come out here and help give the residents of Texas some relief gives me a sense of pride,” said Operations Section Chief Abe Philipson. “Our mission is critical and important as we are giving Texans a little sense of hope that they will have drinkable water and a meal. This is why I love my job.”

“Our hardworking Florida Forest Service personnel on the Green Incident Management Team are working to get millions of meals and bottles of water to communities in need while keeping emergency responders stay safe from COVID-19,” said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried. “We are proud to stand in support of our neighbors in Texas, and we thank our Florida Forest Service team for continuing to help Texans recover from this devastating natural disaster.”

Media seeking local information please contact Ludie Bond at Ludie.Bond@FDACS.gov or (352) 258-6084.

The Florida Forest Service, a division of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, manages more than 1 million acres of state forests and provides forest management assistance on more than 17 million acres of private and community forests. The Florida Forest Service is also responsible for protecting homes, forestland and natural resources from the devastating effects wildfire on more than 26 million acres. Learn more at FDACS.gov/FLForestService and follow @FLForestService for updates.

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