Hyde County Emergency Services Director Justin Gibbs is part of a 10-person incident management team that deployed to Puerto Rico Tuesday morning.

The team is comprised of local and state emergency-management officials who will help local officials coordinate disaster response and recovery efforts. The deployment will be for two weeks.

Puerto Rico requested help from North Carolina through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, which helps coordinate relief for disaster-stricken states and U.S. territories to make available the right type of resources at the right time. In response to this request, North Carolina Emergency Management officials put together a team of highly qualified individuals to assist.

Gibbs has been with Hyde County for over 10 years and guided the county through multiple tropical storm and hurricane recovery efforts. His experience and expertise will be a tremendous asset to the recovery efforts in Puerto Rico. He will be serving as a resource unit leader supporting the Puerto Rico Emergency Management Agency’s Emergency Operations Center. The team will assist with management, direction, control and coordination of response and recovery actions with local, state/territorial and federal levels of government, as well as coordination of public information.

Hyde County is happy to assist our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico. Having been through many hurricanes, the county knows how hard it is to start the recovery process. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Puerto Rico and the recovery teams currently deployed there.