Veteran-led disaster relief organization Team Rubicon deployed its heavy equipment operators to Hattiesburg, Mississippi February 2-10, 2017 to assist in demolishing damaged houses and clearing debris caused by the EF3 tornado that hit the city on January 21, 2017. CASE dealer JWH Equipment (Jackson, Mississippi) supplied an excavator and compact track loader for Team Rubicon’s Operation Iron Bird, which demolished 17 houses and cleared an additional 13 properties of tornado debris for free.

“Our goal while we’re out here as volunteers is to help as many people as we can, to get them to the point where they can rebuild their properties,” says Victor Civitillo, a certified heavy equipment instructor and operator with Team Rubicon who managed the heavy equipment deployment. “Having the CASE heavy equipment here means we can accomplish in two hours what would normally take a full day for a crew working with hand tools. So together we can help families get back on their feet faster, and then the whole community and the local economy recover faster.”