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Volunteer Pilot's Reunite Hurricane Victim with Sister in Minnesota
For a week, Debbie J. lived with the terrible fear her brother Bob was dead. Hurricane Katrina had slammed into his Gulfport, Miss., home, and Debbie had watched the scenes of devastation on TV and the Internet.
“He lived 1,000 feet from the beach,” the Minnesota resident and mother of five said. “I saw photos of Gulfport, and the houses were gone. I kept checking the lists but his name never showed up.”
Then Debbie received a call from Louisiana saying that Anna, Bob’s girlfriend of three years who was with him when Katrina struck, “hadn’t made it but that Bob and the boys had.” Bob, 42, has a 17-year-old son named James, and a 23-year-old step-son named Anthony, who were also in the house. Bob told his sister that the water began to rise and everyone moved to a bedroom in a loft.
With 30-foot waves crashing ashore, “the house started breaking up. It was high tide. The winds were strong.” Bob, Anna, and the boys “went out a crack. The water carried them out.” As the surging waters swept by, they grabbed onto trees. Debbie says Bob hasn’t told her long they were in the water, but Anna reached a point “where she couldn’t hold onto the tree any longer, so she drowned.”
When the water receded, the fire department came by and rescued the men. Bob, a diabetic, contracted an infection from the contaminated water and suffered second and third degree burns on his arms from hugging the tree. “They’re like rug burns,” Debbie explained. He also lost his glasses and a partial plate when the water hit.
Bob was airlifted to Fairhope, Ala. He called his sister in Minnesota who considered driving down to get him, but was “afraid to try it because of bad roads and gas shortages. And I didn’t know if he could handle that long of a ride.” A social worker at the hospital mentioned a nonprofit organization of volunteer pilots who are reuniting hurricane evacuees and family members for free using their own planes. Fred W., a business owner from Woodland, Minn., and a volunteer pilot of six years, accepted the request for help.
Fred is a certified first responder under the Homeland Security Emergency Air Transportation System® (HSEATS). The program was created in 2002 through a grant awarded to Mercy Medical Airlift® by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).
Fred flew Bob and James from Mobile, Ala., to Fairmont, Minn. (150 miles north of Minneapolis) on Sept.11 in his company aircraft, a Cessna 441 Conquest II.
“I hugged him so hard,” Debbie said.
Bob, a retired Navy veteran, is under medical care for his infection. “He plans to remain in Minnesota,” Debbie said. “But he loves the weather” down in Gulfport where his house and his love washed out to sea.
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Teenaged Girl Braves Floodwaters To Get Help
Fifteen-year-old Ashleigh B., was trapped in her New Orleans home with her mother, grandmother, and aunt, when the floodwaters from Katrina began rising. The women made their way to the attic, a challenging task since the girl’s grandmother was very ill and on a feeding tube, and her aunt was recovering from a stroke and required special care.
Ashleigh and her uncle who had come from his house nearby climbed out onto the roof and flagged down a helicopter. EMT workers evacuated the mother and grandmother, and said they’d be back. Time passed but they never returned. Ashleigh knew she had to do something. She jumped into the poisoned floodwaters to find help. She saw dead bodies floating behind her house. She spotted a man in an airboat and was able to get help. Ashleigh went to a shelter in Baton Rouge and was given antibiotics to offset the contaminated water. Eventually, everyone flew to Knoxville, Tenn., where the family had decided to resettle—everyone but Ashleigh and her uncle, who decided to move to California. A volunteer pilot learned about her plight and arranged to fly her to Knoxville on Sept. 9. “You people are awesome, absolutely awesome,” Ashleigh’s family told the volunteer pilot.
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