Travis medical teams poised to respond to Hurricane Florence Published Sept. 13, 2018 By Merrie Schilter-Lowe 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Travis Air Force Base, California has four three-person Critical Care Transport teams on two-hour standby to evacuate critically ill or injured military and civilian patients to a higher level of care or military treatment facility for additional treatment in the wake of Hurricane Florence. The hurricane was downgraded early Thursday to a Category 2 storm, but is still potentially dangerous, according to media reports. Florence is expected to make landfall late Thursday or Friday and move slowly over land, possibly deluging areas with rain and flooding. “We think the order to go will come Friday,” said Maj. (Dr). Michael Galante, 60th Medical Group emergency medicine and CCAT physician. The CCAT team is a highly specialized medical team consisting of a physician who specializes in critical care or emergency medicine, a critical care nurse and a respiratory therapist. “We’re trained to work as a team and can deploy anywhere in the world on any aircraft, but mostly we operate on C-130s and C-17s,” said Galante. Team members are pulled from across David Grant USAF Medical Center to operate as a flying intensive care unit, he said. Once airborne the team monitors and cares for patients until they reach their next destination. “We are always primed and ready to go,” said Maj. Natalie Korana, 60th Medical Group ICU nurse and CCAT coordinator.