As families struggle to recover from deadly storms last week that flooded homes in eastern Kentucky, rescue workers will soon have Ford F-150 pickup trucks that provide much-needed power and transportation.
“There’s 6- to 8-feet of floodwater in the homes,” said Air Force veteran William Porter of Team Rubicon, a nonprofit run by military veterans and first responders who run on-the-ground rescue missions for natural disasters and humanitarian crises.
The Ford trucks will provide power to volunteers working to get flood victims safely back in their homes in these days after water has subsided. The trucks have power outlets that can be used for lighting an area, running power tools or even making coffee for tired workers.
“For us, a truck will support five to seven ‘gray shirts’ who can usually get 10 to 15 families back in their homes per day,” Porter told the Free Press.
For Team Rubicon, gray T-shirts worn by volunteers represent service and sacrifice.
Their focus now is Hazard, Kentucky.
Porter, the operations director for Team Rubicon, said rescue workers have set up in five counties southeast of Lexington, where the storms left people dead, missing, homeless and without power.
Ford Motor Co. is shipping Thursday two all-electric F-150 Lightning Pro trucks and two F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid trucks to the flood zone. Rescue teams on the ground have assessed the situation, coordinating timing and delivery of relief workers and vehicles needed to support them. The company’s charitable Ford Fund has stepped up its assistance with emergency relief in recent years with money and vehicles, Porter said.
Team Rubicon used Ford hybrid trucks during Hurricane Laura in Louisiana in 2020, too.
“A lot of times, electricity is scarce because power lines are down from a hurricane or tornado or flood waters,” Porter said. “Ford has helped us with being able to generate power from the site and allow survivors to have a safe space to stay (at home) as opposed to a shelter. For Hurricane Ida, we were at the epicenter of the destruction in Laplace, near New Orleans, and we didn’t have power for the first two weeks we were there.”
Ford provided four trucks with onboard generators for Hurricane Ida rescue and relief in 2021, he said. “These trucks power our operations.”
Military veterans strategically attack the problems, while assessing safety and security of all involved, Porter said. This is about quickly running supplies and equipment and strike teams. Storms take out electricity service in some areas while, in other areas, it’s shut off for safety reasons.
“The efficiency of onboard generators means we can run everything longer and we need less downtime,” Porter said “We can use the truck to power tools like the circular saws to rip out drywall, cabinets, carpeting. The truck provides electricity for work lights, fans.”
Not needing to carry big, heavy generators to rescue sites is huge, he said.
“All companies definitely do not give us trucks. Ford is the first to my recollection,” Porter said. “I just got word we’re going to test out the all-electric trucks, which will be an opportunity for us as we look at ways to reduce our carbon footprint.”
Hazard is key
Ford is shipping four pickups to Tim Short Ford in Hazard, Kentucky, which is near the center of the flooding. They’ll stage relief from there for the Ford Fund’s Disaster Response Community Partners, Team Rubicon and ToolBank, another nonprofit founded by military veterans.
“One of our service department members lost his whole home,” David Mitchell, new car sales manager at Tim Short Ford, told the Free Press on Thursday. “We’ve had a lot of people affected here.”
In addition to sending $250,000 worth of trucks, the Ford Fund is also partnering with the United Way of Kentucky to provide support for recovery and rebuilding in coming months, Mike Levine, Ford North America product communications director, told the Free Press.
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Ford is sending King Ranch and Platinum hybrids to eastern Kentucky because that’s what’s ready to go now. These pickups are made at the Dearborn Truck Plant and Rouge Electric Vehicle Center also in Dearborn.
Buffalo shootings, too
When the Ford team hears of a crisis or disaster through the news media, from car dealers or alerts from disaster relief partners, the Ford Fund determines whether it can help, and almost always provides essential services for the underserved, said Jim Graham, manager of essential services at the Ford Fund.
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In Buffalo, New York, after the deadly shootings at Tops in May faded from the headlines, the grocery remained closed for two months. Ford went in there to help, too.
“The food store was close to the Ford plant there,” Graham said. “When that food store went down, the area became a food desert. We worked with the United Way and provided funding for food.”
“We focus on long-term recovery,” Graham said. “We are one of many players that come in. We want to be involved as a good community citizen, whether we have a plant there or not.”
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The Ford Fund, which is not associated with the Ford Foundation, is a charitable arm of the automaker that provides access to crucial services, including basic needs and social justice to local, national and international communities. It had a budget of $74.4 million in 2021, according to the annual report. It has donated $2.2 billion since 1949.
Rapid response
Ford has had strong ties to veterans and veterans support, so working with Team Rubicon and Tool Bank is a natural fit, Graham said.
“They deploy their people immediately,” he said. “Team Rubicon handles a disaster strategically, like they would with a military operation. These are specialized groups that clear out things and train people to do what they do.”
Ford also sent vehicles when western Kentucky was hit with tornadoes in December.
Jim Baumbick, vice president, Ford Operations and New Model Launches, said in a statement to the Free Press, “Kentucky is home to so many Ford employees and customers. … It’s important to our team that we make a difference with recovery efforts. Inside Ford, we call it ‘Ford Force’ – sending these trucks to places where they can help like we did (making personal protection equipment) with Project Apollo fighting COVID.”
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Contact Phoebe Wall Howard:313-618-1034orphoward@freepress.com.Follow her on Twitter@phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.