Kansas National Guard unit heading to Puerto Rico to help after hurricane

They’ve been to the plains of Kansas and the mountains of Colorado to clean up the aftermath of nature’s wrath.

Now David Carver and Derek Redenius are heading to the island of Puerto Rico.

Carver and Redenius are staff sergeants in the Kansas National Guard’s 242nd Engineer Company and are part of a detachment of about 60 soldiers departing on a humanitarian mission to Puerto Rico.

The soldiers will help with debris removal and damage assessments in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico and numerous other Caribbean islands in September.

The official death toll in Puerto Rico from Maria stands at 54, though informal estimates of the number killed have topped 900.

Lt. Eric Cooley said the unit still hasn’t been told exactly what they’ll be doing once they arrive. All they know, he said, is “we’ll be aiding in the relief effort down there.”

That will include clearing roads of debris and, if necessary, rebuilding them.

The 242nd has heavy equipment operators, electricians, plumbers and carpenters, so they will be in great demand.

“One of the biggest things I like about being in the Guard is helping our neighbors,” Redenius said.

They’ve been to Chetopa and Sublette following ice storms, Coffeyville and Augusta for floods, the Front Range of the Rockies following a landslide in 2013.

Carver has vivid memories of spending more than two months at Greensburg following the tornado that wiped the Kiowa County town from the map in 2007.

“It’s a great privilege to be able to go down and help” Puerto Rico, Carver said.

The Kansas unit will be relieving National Guard soldiers from another state and are expected to be in Puerto Rico for 30 days.

This story was originally published November 3, 2017 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Kansas National Guard unit heading to Puerto Rico to help after hurricane."