Regional Emergency Disaster Response Team Meets With Tulsa Leaders To See How They Can Help After A Natural Disaster Strikes

A natural disaster response team wants to make sure agencies in Green Country know help is available whenever disaster happens.

180 people volunteers with Minuteman Disaster Response and they are in Tulsa to let law enforcement know all they have to offer and all of it for free.

Everyone is welcome to meet with the team Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Not only do they want to explain all they can offer, they are also looking for volunteers in this area.

Minuteman Disaster Response came to Green County in 2019 to help flooding victims. 

“Once the waters began to recede in the sand springs area, town and country neighborhood, specifically we were there immediately to begin moving in, working with the families mucking out homes," said Matt Payne.

Payne is the Executive Director of Minuteman Disaster Response. The non-profit is based in McKinney, Texas but they serve Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. They've helped several communities, including Tulsa and Rogers counties.

“A bunch of guys worked a bunch of hours and they even came back for a second phase to help with the clean up, but nobody got a bill," said Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton.

Sheriff Walton said Payne's team called and offered volunteers and equipment during the flooding and it was a huge help. 

“Nobody has the resources that they need to take care of a situation when they come at the volume that they do. Whether that’s tornado, floods, any of these of these emergency situations require a lot of resources and none of us have what it takes to take care of the thing from start to finish," said Sheriff Walton.

He said the Minuteman are saving lives and he would love to see more people get involved in their work. 

“We can come in trained teams with ground search and rescue, aerial search with drones, flood and swift water rescue and then even the days and weeks after a disaster we get involved with our team helping out with chainsaws and debris removal. Mucking out homes and all this is done with just great hearted volunteers," said Payne.

For more information about Minuteman Disaster Response click here.