December 16, 2008 - National Conference for Secure Communities

I was invited to Washington D.C. to speak at a symposium to develop key recommendations for the new administration. I participated as a discussion leader/subject matter expert for the symposium sharing about the model “First Response Team of America”.

I participated in a mixer the night before the symposium began. I had a chance to meet Lt. General Russell Honoree. He recognized me and said, “I know who you are, you’re that guy from CNN! I want to join your team and partner with you.” It was an honor to meet the general. He is well known for overseeing the United States military response to Hurricane Katrina. The next morning we had breakfast together, and I had a chance to talk with him about working together in the future. He offered to help me build a relationship with the Red Cross and with Homeland Security. I will take him up on that offer soon enough.

That afternoon I presented the story and work of the First Response Team to senators, governors, mayors, and various government and emergency officials. I shared how this model of custom-designed equipment, technology, and experienced staff meets the needs of communities devastated by disasters on day one and in the first few critical weeks after a disaster strikes. They even played a video from CNN Heroes. Afterwards I had an opportunity to meet many representatives from state, federal and humanitarian agencies who were also interested in meeting the various needs of disaster victims.

Yet, I must conclude, Washington is not necessarily the perfect fit for me. I find the more time I spend in the field, the better I will be at finding solutions that work. At that point, I will continue to have proven solutions to present to our country that I’m confident will work.

November 27, 2008 - CNN All-Star Tribute, Kodak Theater

What a night. Today I was honored as one of CNN’s top ten heroes for 2008. Being in the Kodak Theater was a bit surreal – it’s the same theater where the Grammys are held. Anderson Cooper hosted it and Grammy Award-winning artists Alicia Keys and John Legend performed. Celebrities who presented awards were Cameron Diaz, Meg Ryan, Forest Whitaker, Salma Hayek, Lucy Liu, Terrence Howard, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale and Selena Gomez. In addition, Hugh Jackman presented PEOPLE Magazine’s 2008 “Heroes Among Us”.

It was so great to be there with two of the guys from the team, Seth Lambert and Tim Wolkowicz. All three of us sat in the front row during the ceremony. There were so many famous people present and because I’m not up with pop culture I did not recognize many of them. John Krasinski, Len Wiseman, Molly Sims, Ricki Lake, Eliza Dushku, Ken Paves, Leelee Sobieski, Rachael Leigh Cook, Rachel Zoe, Taylor Swift and Robert Duvall were some of the many stars who were there to celebrate with us.

But, I must say, the highlight of the whole night was meeting the other CNN heroes. I had a chance to talk with each one of them, and it was truly inspiring. All of us had the same hearts – we simply wanted to live lives that changed the world around us. We can’t make everything better but we can live lives of change and help where we can with the resources and abilities we have.

Beyond that…meeting Lucy Liu was a bit of a surprise. After the tribute was over each hero was supposed to get pictures taken with the star that presented their award. John Krasinski, who gave me my award, had to leave shortly after the tribute so I was standing alone. Then all of a sudden this beautiful person walked up to me and said, “Hi, my name is Lucy Liu! Your work is wonderful and impressive. Would you like to take a picture together?”


Overall it was a wonderful evening. I was thankful to be with my men, the other heroes, and to be honored for all the hard work that has gone into taking the dream of the First Response Team and making it a reality. Thank you.

October 8, 2008 - Top Ten CNN Hereos

This morning CNN’s Anderson Cooper announced that I was selected along with nine other people by a blue ribbon panel as a finalist for CNN’s Hero of the Year 2008! It was exciting because I was a bit nervous, not knowing if I would make it to the top ten or not. I knew that if I made it to the top ten the exposure would be great for the team!

For the last year and a half, I have fully paid for this operation myself, and I’m at the point where I have completely exhausted my financial resources. The only way I can continue the work of the team is to start a non-profit, and this exposure will help get it off the ground. Funding is needed for the 2009 storm season, and I’m hoping this endorsement from the most trusted name in news will help us with that.

Being in the top ten means I and nine other honorees will be saluted during the 'CNN HEROES All-Star Tribute' to be broadcast on the global networks of CNN on Thanksgiving night, Thursday, November 27th.

The Blue Ribbon Panel of judges that chose us included: Queen Rania Al Abdullah, founder of the Jordan River Foundation; Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, founder and chair of This World: The Jewish Values Network; Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Unite, the not-for-profit foundation of Virgin Group; Deepak Chopra, doctor, philosopher, author and speaker; Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute; Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; Earvin “Magic” Johnson, founder and chairman of the Magic Johnson Foundation; George Lopez, comedian, actor and founder of The George & Ann Lopez-Richie Alarcon CARE Foundation; Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth Institute and co-founder and president of the Millennium Promise Alliance; Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu; Kristi Yamaguchi, founder of The Always Dream Foundation; and Holly Robinson Peete, activist and advocate through the HollyRod Foundation.

The public will be able to vote and select the “CNN Hero of the Year” via voting at the CNN Heroes site from now through Wednesday, Nov. 19. At the November gala, CNN will honor the 10 heroes and reveal the CNN Hero of the Year, who will receive an additional $100,000. In its second year, the multiplatform initiative received nearly 4,000 submissions from 75 countries. So in other words…please vote for me. The team could really use the money!

June 21, 2008 - Clarksville, MO Flood

We quickly heard of the troubles Clarksville, MO, was having holding back the river. The roads to Clarksville were winding and narrow, which proved challenging as we navigated our fleet of over a million dollars of equipment down to this little river town. The only way into town was through this extremely steep and narrow road. When we arrived, a local emergency official greeted us and immediately put us to work.

The town’s sandbagging operation consisted of volunteers making bags and loading trucks, which at times took hours. Seth and Rob quickly got the two cranes ready and positioned to load the piles of sand bags volunteers had made the previous days. The National Guards was there equipped with dump trucks. We loaded their trucks one after the other, only taking about five minutes per truck. This sped up the building of the levees because the sand bags were now getting to the river much quicker.

We were also asked to escort the National Guard engineers to buildings facing danger on the Mississippi River using our hovercraft. Levees needed to be inspected from the river side, and measurements needed to be taken to find out whether the river was rising or falling – and whether the worst was ahead or behind us. The water was filled with debris such as trees and railroad tracks that were barely sticking out from the water. Two by two I ferried the military as well as local emergency officials to where they needed to go on the unpredictable river.

The area along this part of the river has very large hills. They seemed to be blocking our cell phone service so we had to use our satellite phone system. The team was able to keep in contact since we were basically spread all throughout the town.

People magazine showed up to do an article on me. It was a bit odd to stand there in this disaster area and take photos for a magazine. I hope it helps bring exposure to the First Response Team, and people will start supporting us.

We are going to stay here for a few days to help with sandbagging, pumping water, and providing communication – as well as being prepared to help out with water rescues if needed.

June 20, 2008 - Clarksville, MO Flood

We finished up in Burlington and as we were loading the CATs and water pumps I began to make plans to follow the river south and see if other communities about to be flooded needed our help. The reports were coming in from down south that small country towns were bracing for the destructive floodwaters. This river that was sucking full homes into its waters just north of us was proving to be a force to be reckoned with.

But the decision of which town we would respond to next was just about to be made for me. My cell phone rang and the person on the other end of the line asked, “Is this Tad Agoglia?” I said yes. He went on to explain that he was calling from Missouri’s emergency operation center in the state capital. They heard we had a hovercraft and needed us to respond to a distress call where more than 70 volunteers were cut off from help by the Mississippi River in a sand bagging operation south of the city of Clarksville. I explained we were only about two hours away and could leave immediately. When I asked how he got my cell phone number he said, “Aren’t you the guy who came to Ava, MO, to power up our nursing home?”

The team was already tired from our non-stop travels from Picher, OK, Parkersburg, IA, Middletown, IN, Oakville, IA, Burlington, IA and now south to Clarksville…but we knew we had to respond.

The trip south was a bit tense. Time was of the essence, and we had to get there as soon as possible – but due to the size of our rigs and the winding roads we had to take our time and be safe. The roads were small, winding, and hilly in eastern Missouri. One false move and we would have drifted off these narrow roads. We would have defeated our purpose if we hurt someone else in the process of helping others.



By the time we arrived, we discovered that it was a false alarm. I called the capital to alert them, and we realized someone had their information wrong. As far as I was concerned, it was good news. At this point, the Mississippi was raging and had shown no mercy for the many cities left in the wake of its destruction. I then heard about a community just a few miles north that was in need of a hovercraft to help monitor levees and check the river levels. We left within the hour for Clarksville, MO.

June 18, 2008 - Burlington, IA Flood

We were just finishing up in Oakville and decided to head out of town, get a decent hotel, and get some laundry done. The team was tired and was looking forward to enjoying a good meal and some rest. Rob went out to do some shopping in the nearest city, which was Burlington. Within an hour my phone rang – it was Rob explaining that there was a building right on the Mississippi River that was underwater, and it looked like they could really use our help. I jumped in my truck and headed down to Burlington.

Within a few minutes of my arrival I met Pete Wilson, the factory manager of LaMont Limited. He explained that the water pump, which was almost 40 years old, caught on fire and the basement of this huge factory has subsequently filled with water, just one inch away from the majority of the inventory on the first floor.

I called the rest of the team to get all the equipment to downtown Burlington and within an hour we had our 1800 gallon-per-minute water pump removing the water from the basement.

But that would not completely solve the problem. The LaMont Limited building was under water – the Mississippi River was surrounding the building with water 3-4 feet high. We could pump the water out of the basement but it would just fill back up as soon as we pumped it out. Our only choice was to sand bag around the building…but can you sand bag a building that is already under water? There was only one way to find ouy: Let’s sand bag it.

It would take a small army to walk sand bags through the water one by one and build this wall to hold back the river. The $310,000 trucks were too expensive to risk putting in the deep water and the only piece of equipment that could drive through 3-4 feet of water with sand bags was our CAT skid steers. I decided to take a chance and send one in with the other one on standby with cables and chains in case the first skid steer stalled from the deep waters.

For the next 10 hours, the First Response Team worked tirelessly with some of the factory workers. While the water pump was pumping, we were building this wall in the hopes that it would work. By 10 pm the wall was built, and we were soaking wet. The water pump was still working and by 6 am the next morning the basement was empty.

Guess what? It worked. The wall was built around the factory and no more water was flooding into the basement. I never thought you could sand bag a wall around a building that was already under water and then pump the building dry but we did it anyway and we saved the inventory of the largest factory in Burlington, IA.

As we were finishing up that morning, I kept my eye on the weather reports. I heard of many communities that were nervous about the raging waters headed south. I knew many of them would not have the budgets nor equipment to help themselves, similar to the situation in Oakville. We loaded the equipment and said goodbye. I was going to make some calls and do some more research about communities along the river when my cell phone suddenly rang.

June 15, 2008 - Oakville, IA Flood

It was a good fight but we didn’t win. Even though everybody in the town and from nearby cities came to help, we lost this one. There was a breach today, and it was impossible to stop. We tried but just could not hold back the water. Within a few short hours the city of Oakville, IA, was completely flooded, including approximately 18,000 acres of surrounding farmland.

When we started this fight I was not sure if we would really hold back the river. Further north the river was overtaking cities that had more resources than Oakville. But what if we did not give it our best? What would that say about the community? What would that say to future generations about giving it your best shot…to always try and never give up?

I’m glad we came to Oakville. It was worth it to be a part of this effort and to experience the passion, drive, and dedication of a small town. This town joined together to help neighbors and strangers alike, expecting nothing in return, fighting for the existence of their community. I have no doubt in my mind that Oakville will not look back. They will rebuild those levees better than ever before, they will rebuild their town, and will continue to be the heart and soul of America.