08-05-2025
MCAS Cherry Point hosts first Emergency Management Summit
HAVELOCK, N.C. (WNCT) — With hurricanes like Helene and Florence happening recently in North Carolina, emergency management officials gathered to prepare for the upcoming storm season.
Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point hosted its first Emergency Management Summit Wednesday, May 7, 2025.
'With different local, state and federal agencies all coming together at Cherry Point today, the goal is to figure out how they can all use their capabilities to work together in times of emergencies,' MCAS Cherry Point Commanding Officer Col. Brendan 'Cletus' Burks said. 'Today, we have all of our regional partners together to talk emergency management and it is a great opportunity for us to put faces with names, also to talk about our capabilities, kind of learn each other and what we bring to emergency management in response and then also talk about future support for each other. So great opportunity today.'
Some of those partners included other military installations in the state, nearby county emergency management officials and energy and internet companies.
All of them came together to network and learn how to have the best joint response to disasters. 'Here at Cherry Point, obviously majority of our Marines are civil servants and contractors that work here, live in our local community,' Director of Mission Assurance for MCAS Cherry Point Grant DeHaven said. 'So, it's about most important is that we are out there working with them and helping them recover from such a disaster as well.'
DeHaven also shared what the MCAS learned from Hurricane Florence. 'The first place that local community will look, or one of the first places other than going to the state headquarters, is there, go down to a military installation and ask for help because we do have those mechanisms here.'
They also discussed lessons learned from Hurricane Helene. 'There are ways to work together and the most important thing in an event like this is meeting the people you're going to end up working with in a disaster response,' Director of Joint Staff North Carolina National Guard BG Wes Morrison said.
'On a normal day, we really, they do their own jobs, coming together like this makes us a stronger response agency,' North Carolina Emergency Management Eastern Branch Manager Dianne Curtis said. 'This was the first year for this type of summit, so they hope to continue to have more in years to come.'
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