Don Jones
Line Up and Wait
I just got this E-mail from Butch Smith of AFSC. It is a daily description of what AFSC has been doing for Katrina victims. Some cool stuff. Mission count over a hundred by Sunday. Interesting reading.
Don
Friday 9/3/05 0130 hrs
I just returned tonight from Baton Rouge and our AFSC on-site command post. Here is a quick update. Please remember these are snapshots:
1. The scene is one of extraordinary but uncoordinated activity.
2. The normally sleepy Baton Rouge airport is overwhelmed. Looks like DFW on steroids with a very active military base laid over on top. All in a space 20% the size. Approach control is unable to talk by radio with center; they are using landlines to communicate. The circuits are often busy which results in ground stoppages. There is a TFR; however, we had no problem (other than a 45 minute taxi) getting in or out when filed as “Angel Flight”. We were told that VFR was not getting in and regular IFR was hit and miss.
3. Communication is extremely difficult. Landlines jammed, cell and Sat phones can’t get out with any confidence and regularity.
4. Our ED, Sarah Riehm, our Louisiana Wing Leader, Mike Hart plus Phil Eggers are manning our command post at Avitat FBO.
5. When I arrived (with Phil) we had just been asked to provide an emergency evacuation of 80 people from the River Center in Baton Rouge. We located 80 beds at the Reunion Center Red Cross shelter in Dallas, arrange ground transportation from Dallas Love to the shelter and put out a call for sufficient AFSC airplanes and pilots to airlift 80 folks.
6. Two hours later, long after our pilots were in the air, the evacuation was cancelled. The reason for the cancellation was still unclear when I called a halt to the night’s activities and we began to attempt to reach pilots enroute and turn them around. Some we stopped, many others arrived in Baton Rouge to discover that the Governor, the Louisiana Secretary of Social Services, the Parrish President (something like a County Elected official), or all three had ordered the cancellation. Very frustrating to know there are people in desperate need just a few miles from the airport but some pencil necked so and so halted an evacuation airlift in progress.
7. We will keep trying. We were burned pretty badly tonight. We got rolling at the specific and frantic, yes, frantic, request of the authorities only to see it turn into a disappointing and frustrating exercise in futility. Lesson Number One: We will try to airlift folks going forward but will only call on our pilots when the people to be evacuated are at the airport, lined up, ready to go.
Some observations:
8. Six or seven AFGA folks showed up at our location wanting to know where to unload the diapers and food they had brought. Plane loads of them. No one at the FBO knows anything about the diaper, baby food and water airlift. No one from AFGA, the Red Cross, FEMA or the state was there to receive it. For right now, it is being piled up in an empty hangar.
9. No one is in charge, as of tonight. No single person or entity to make binding decisions across all lines. There is no “Air Boss”, i.e., no one specifically charged with responsibility for airlift.
10. Are things improving? Hard to tell from our vantage point. Maybe, probably, hopefully.
We are committed to doing our duty towards our fellow citizens. We are determined to help. We will not give up. We will figure this out.
My plan is to fly back down tomorrow or Sunday to bring in supplies. We will be in touch with our folks on the ground and will bring you up to speed as we can.
Butch
O.R. (Butch) Smith, Jr.
Chairman, Board of Directors
Angel Flight South Central
Saturday 9/3/05 1955 hrs.
Another long day but one showing some significant progress:
1. We (AFSC) have flown 50+ HSEATS missions to date with many more on tap for Sunday, Monday & Tuesday. I am aware of another 5 or 6 flown by AFSE (could be more, I have no way of knowing)
2. Missions include:
a. Evacuee airlift to shelters outside Louisiana
b. Flights to reunite mothers and infants (pre-mature babies airlifted to neo-natal care facilities in one city and parents to another…it’s happened a number of times)
c. Moving medical personnel
d. Airlifting specifically requested supplies
e. Participation in an extremely well organized supply airlift from Corpus Christi, Texas to Pascagoula, Mississippi.
3. We decided to relocate our coordination efforts back to Addison while leaving a significant presence at Louisiana Aircraft (Avitat) at BTR. To be clear we will have personnel on the ground at Baton Rouge for some time to come.
4. AFSC’s office will remain open and fully staffed through the weekend including Labor Day.
I can’t say enough about the simply outstanding (and sacrificial) effort of our staff, pilots and incredible volunteers. Very humbling and truly remarkable to witness.
Butch
O.R. (Butch) Smith, Jr.
Chairman, Board of Directors
Angel Flight South Central
Sunday 9/4/05 2015 hrs.
Today was one of significant progress, marked by heartbreak and joyous success in our mission.
1. Mission count is well above 100 (I haven’t taken time to really count) over the last 72 hours with hundreds of people transported what is cumulatively thousands and thousands of miles.
2. Here is one story: Early this morning 15 people were plucked off a roof in New Orleans. The children went in one helo, adults in another. The children ended up in a shelter in Lafayette, LA this afternoon, the adults in San Antonio, Texas. We launched two airplanes to Lafayette, picked up all seven children (plus two social workers) and flew them to San Antonio to be reunited with their parents. Good stuff!
3. Our team in Baton Rouge is magnificent. They are working 24 hours a day and catching a few minutes rest on a dirty floor when they can. It is a hot, noisy, place with absolutely no room. When I flew back Friday night, we were frustrated in the results of our first airlift attempt. I can tell you now; we are getting missions out almost every hour.
4. Our Addison team is extraordinary as well. We have 8 phone lines and most of the time, all eight are busy.
5. Tom Powers and I spoke tonight about getting one of AFSE’s mission coordinators positioned in the ADS office. It will be very, very helpful to have an AFSE M.C. here to better facilitate the evacuees going east.
6. We are forwarding mission requests to 4 of the 7 regions. The need to great and growing.
7. We are exploring the possibility of staging pilots and airplanes in a city closer to Baton Rouge (possibly Shreveport). We cannot stage at Baton Rouge. Too many airplanes, too many people, fuel shortages etc. (Coupled with a Presidential TFR (NO FLY) for President Bush’s trip to Baton Rouge tomorrow). The idea is to have planes with shorter lead times. Pilots wanting to assist from around the country could be positioned at the staging airport and launched as evacuees are vetted and then transported to BTR.
More tomorrow. It’s late and it will be another long day tomorrow. God bless the United States. God bless the wonderful men and women involved with this critically needed effort.
O.R. (Butch) Smith, Jr.
Chairman, Board of Directors
Angel Flight South Central
Monday 9/5/05 2050 hrs.
Today’s headline is Angel flight of America is making a difference. We flew what is in all probability our great number of missions today, on Labor Day.
1. We appear to have fully broken through the roadblocks to providing charitable airlift during this crisis. The Red Cross, multiple state agencies and private charities are all calling seeking our support.
2. We have continued to focus our efforts on moving people, not supplies (the exception being a few well organized entities with specific goals and in-place infrastructure). There has been no call specific call (with the exception noted) for "supplies" to be airlifted by Angel Flight. Trucks are far more effective and efficient. The supplies being airlifted in by G.A. airplanes at BTR for example are being piled up in an empty hangar or outside. There is no room for them, there is no plan to move them and there is no one to facilitate getting them to people in need.
3. Our efforts are focused on reuniting families and getting people out.
4. The response by Angel Flight of America people is truly amazing. To paraphrase a famous quote: During this crisis, uncommon commitment is a common virtue. I can’t begin to properly praise the BTR Command Center volunteers, mission coordinators, pilots, volunteers and staff.
One of our pilots wrote to ask me today “what we will do next?” My answer was that we will continue. Continue to make a difference.
Butch
O.R. (Butch) Smith, Jr.
Chairman, Board of Directors
Angel Flight South Central
Don
Friday 9/3/05 0130 hrs
I just returned tonight from Baton Rouge and our AFSC on-site command post. Here is a quick update. Please remember these are snapshots:
1. The scene is one of extraordinary but uncoordinated activity.
2. The normally sleepy Baton Rouge airport is overwhelmed. Looks like DFW on steroids with a very active military base laid over on top. All in a space 20% the size. Approach control is unable to talk by radio with center; they are using landlines to communicate. The circuits are often busy which results in ground stoppages. There is a TFR; however, we had no problem (other than a 45 minute taxi) getting in or out when filed as “Angel Flight”. We were told that VFR was not getting in and regular IFR was hit and miss.
3. Communication is extremely difficult. Landlines jammed, cell and Sat phones can’t get out with any confidence and regularity.
4. Our ED, Sarah Riehm, our Louisiana Wing Leader, Mike Hart plus Phil Eggers are manning our command post at Avitat FBO.
5. When I arrived (with Phil) we had just been asked to provide an emergency evacuation of 80 people from the River Center in Baton Rouge. We located 80 beds at the Reunion Center Red Cross shelter in Dallas, arrange ground transportation from Dallas Love to the shelter and put out a call for sufficient AFSC airplanes and pilots to airlift 80 folks.
6. Two hours later, long after our pilots were in the air, the evacuation was cancelled. The reason for the cancellation was still unclear when I called a halt to the night’s activities and we began to attempt to reach pilots enroute and turn them around. Some we stopped, many others arrived in Baton Rouge to discover that the Governor, the Louisiana Secretary of Social Services, the Parrish President (something like a County Elected official), or all three had ordered the cancellation. Very frustrating to know there are people in desperate need just a few miles from the airport but some pencil necked so and so halted an evacuation airlift in progress.
7. We will keep trying. We were burned pretty badly tonight. We got rolling at the specific and frantic, yes, frantic, request of the authorities only to see it turn into a disappointing and frustrating exercise in futility. Lesson Number One: We will try to airlift folks going forward but will only call on our pilots when the people to be evacuated are at the airport, lined up, ready to go.
Some observations:
8. Six or seven AFGA folks showed up at our location wanting to know where to unload the diapers and food they had brought. Plane loads of them. No one at the FBO knows anything about the diaper, baby food and water airlift. No one from AFGA, the Red Cross, FEMA or the state was there to receive it. For right now, it is being piled up in an empty hangar.
9. No one is in charge, as of tonight. No single person or entity to make binding decisions across all lines. There is no “Air Boss”, i.e., no one specifically charged with responsibility for airlift.
10. Are things improving? Hard to tell from our vantage point. Maybe, probably, hopefully.
We are committed to doing our duty towards our fellow citizens. We are determined to help. We will not give up. We will figure this out.
My plan is to fly back down tomorrow or Sunday to bring in supplies. We will be in touch with our folks on the ground and will bring you up to speed as we can.
Butch
O.R. (Butch) Smith, Jr.
Chairman, Board of Directors
Angel Flight South Central
Saturday 9/3/05 1955 hrs.
Another long day but one showing some significant progress:
1. We (AFSC) have flown 50+ HSEATS missions to date with many more on tap for Sunday, Monday & Tuesday. I am aware of another 5 or 6 flown by AFSE (could be more, I have no way of knowing)
2. Missions include:
a. Evacuee airlift to shelters outside Louisiana
b. Flights to reunite mothers and infants (pre-mature babies airlifted to neo-natal care facilities in one city and parents to another…it’s happened a number of times)
c. Moving medical personnel
d. Airlifting specifically requested supplies
e. Participation in an extremely well organized supply airlift from Corpus Christi, Texas to Pascagoula, Mississippi.
3. We decided to relocate our coordination efforts back to Addison while leaving a significant presence at Louisiana Aircraft (Avitat) at BTR. To be clear we will have personnel on the ground at Baton Rouge for some time to come.
4. AFSC’s office will remain open and fully staffed through the weekend including Labor Day.
I can’t say enough about the simply outstanding (and sacrificial) effort of our staff, pilots and incredible volunteers. Very humbling and truly remarkable to witness.
Butch
O.R. (Butch) Smith, Jr.
Chairman, Board of Directors
Angel Flight South Central
Sunday 9/4/05 2015 hrs.
Today was one of significant progress, marked by heartbreak and joyous success in our mission.
1. Mission count is well above 100 (I haven’t taken time to really count) over the last 72 hours with hundreds of people transported what is cumulatively thousands and thousands of miles.
2. Here is one story: Early this morning 15 people were plucked off a roof in New Orleans. The children went in one helo, adults in another. The children ended up in a shelter in Lafayette, LA this afternoon, the adults in San Antonio, Texas. We launched two airplanes to Lafayette, picked up all seven children (plus two social workers) and flew them to San Antonio to be reunited with their parents. Good stuff!
3. Our team in Baton Rouge is magnificent. They are working 24 hours a day and catching a few minutes rest on a dirty floor when they can. It is a hot, noisy, place with absolutely no room. When I flew back Friday night, we were frustrated in the results of our first airlift attempt. I can tell you now; we are getting missions out almost every hour.
4. Our Addison team is extraordinary as well. We have 8 phone lines and most of the time, all eight are busy.
5. Tom Powers and I spoke tonight about getting one of AFSE’s mission coordinators positioned in the ADS office. It will be very, very helpful to have an AFSE M.C. here to better facilitate the evacuees going east.
6. We are forwarding mission requests to 4 of the 7 regions. The need to great and growing.
7. We are exploring the possibility of staging pilots and airplanes in a city closer to Baton Rouge (possibly Shreveport). We cannot stage at Baton Rouge. Too many airplanes, too many people, fuel shortages etc. (Coupled with a Presidential TFR (NO FLY) for President Bush’s trip to Baton Rouge tomorrow). The idea is to have planes with shorter lead times. Pilots wanting to assist from around the country could be positioned at the staging airport and launched as evacuees are vetted and then transported to BTR.
More tomorrow. It’s late and it will be another long day tomorrow. God bless the United States. God bless the wonderful men and women involved with this critically needed effort.
O.R. (Butch) Smith, Jr.
Chairman, Board of Directors
Angel Flight South Central
Monday 9/5/05 2050 hrs.
Today’s headline is Angel flight of America is making a difference. We flew what is in all probability our great number of missions today, on Labor Day.
1. We appear to have fully broken through the roadblocks to providing charitable airlift during this crisis. The Red Cross, multiple state agencies and private charities are all calling seeking our support.
2. We have continued to focus our efforts on moving people, not supplies (the exception being a few well organized entities with specific goals and in-place infrastructure). There has been no call specific call (with the exception noted) for "supplies" to be airlifted by Angel Flight. Trucks are far more effective and efficient. The supplies being airlifted in by G.A. airplanes at BTR for example are being piled up in an empty hangar or outside. There is no room for them, there is no plan to move them and there is no one to facilitate getting them to people in need.
3. Our efforts are focused on reuniting families and getting people out.
4. The response by Angel Flight of America people is truly amazing. To paraphrase a famous quote: During this crisis, uncommon commitment is a common virtue. I can’t begin to properly praise the BTR Command Center volunteers, mission coordinators, pilots, volunteers and staff.
One of our pilots wrote to ask me today “what we will do next?” My answer was that we will continue. Continue to make a difference.
Butch
O.R. (Butch) Smith, Jr.
Chairman, Board of Directors
Angel Flight South Central
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