Found some pictures from back in 2005 solo relief mission to a couple of the stricken cities next to New Orleans - Slidell and Stennis. I took off from C81 in Grayslake a few days after the disaster with around 500 pounds of relief supplies ranging from juice and canned goods to baby diapers and formula.
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| MaComb Mississippi Sheriff's task force |
The farthest that I could initially fly to was to McComb, Mississippi. Just south of there was the new Restricted Airspace Line approximately 50 nautical miles north of New Orleans. After being unable to contact anyone on the ground anywhere near New Orleans, I conferred with the McComb Sheriff's Department's task force that was mobilizing there. I was considering joining them on the ground trip to New Orleans, but instead filled all my fuel tanks to the limit and punted. I didn't know how I would get home, thinking the ground trip could be a one way trip.
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| Picayune Mississippi Airport Ramp |
I took to the air and monitored several frequencies. After a short while circling the airspace border, I made contact with a Blackhawk helicopter pilot and he gave me the frequency for the active AWACS plane ("Omaha 45") circling high over the disaster area and handling all the traffic control. A few minutes later I had my clearance number and made a bee line south.
Where to land? As I approached 10 or 20 miles north of the coast I could start to see the carnage on the ground. I decided to land 12:00 at an airport that looked pretty torn up. It was Picayune's field. No one answering any calls, I set down on the main runway and avoided tree limbs and other debris. Met an FBO guy and learned that they had just tackled a guy trying to loot AV Gas, but that they were in OK shape. I received intel that Sliddell was in pretty bad shape, so I took off and headed that way.
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| Damaged twin at Picayune Airport |
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| Slidell Louisiana power-lines down |
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| Flipped over at Picayune Airport |
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| Slidell Louisiana - McDonalds |
As I approached the northern coast of Lake Pontchartrain, I could see all the roads and houses were underwater. I landed in Slidell and assisted the fire department for 2 days searching for fires and locating stranded people. I worked with these two guys in the picture. They were the first people I saw when I landed. They immediately went off and an hour later they pulled back in with a truck to transfer my relief supplies.
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| Jim and Seth |
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| Temporary shelter in school gym |
I had heard that Stennis was in even worse shape, so I took off and heading that way. Most of the flight was over flooded thick bayou and was a little scary. There's no hiking out of there. I called Stennis 5 miles out on CTAF and was surprised to hear back from a "Tower". Stennis was in the process of being turned into an Army base. The Marines were already there and this was to be the final base of departure for a lot of the troops going into downtown New Orleans. I landed and followed all the instructions. I was welcomed I think because everyone loves this Dehavilland. The Base Commander came right over and wanted to sit inside. So there I was - parked next to the C130's and sleeping on a cot eating K-rations. It was around 100 degrees and the humidity 80%. When I was walking on the tarmack at midnight, it was "alive" and moving. I thought at first I was seeing things, but then i realized that it was millions and millions of some kind of large black beetles. No fun to step on.
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| Stennis Mississippi - Army taking command of field |
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| Stennis Mississippi C130 departure for New Orleans |
The goal for me there in Stennis was to see if there was a family I could help out, or even fly back to Chicago to put up for a while till they got back on their feet. Went to the shelters with the Manatee County (Florida) Sheriff's task force. There were task forces from cities from all different parts of the U.S. Very impressive.
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| Stennis Mississippi hanger damage |
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| Stennis Mississippi overpass high water line |
I needed to get to the shelters 10 miles away. Nobody at the airport temporary shelter could help me because of the “formal
risk” of helping as a "private individual" from Chicago.
They would be blamed if anything happened that would be my fault, i.e.:
plane crash. They said all they could do
was tell Red Cross and try and connect me with them. I said “thanks” and that I would be with my
plane on the ramp for the night. Not a half hour later, a Manatee Sheriff
wheels up in his truck and says: “Let’s go.
I am under your command for as long as you need me. I am formally not to get out of my vehicle or
assist you in any way, but just get you to where you need to go.”
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| Stennis Mississippi Ramp - more relief planes coming in from all parts |
So we got some good stuff done. One memory was chasing looters after curfew; people posing as rummaging through their own belongings, but they really didn't live there. The side streets were barely passable and instead of houses, everything looked like a big toothpick sculpture. Cars and refrigerators in trees, stuff like that. I finally made it to a shelter and a woman and her small children wanted to come back with me to Chicago. We had it all set, but then out of the blue her Aunt came running up and vetoed the whole thing. I guess I wasn't wearing a pilot's uniform with stripes on my shoulder, so she thought it was all a big joke.
I figured I had done as much as I could do, so I flew home the next day with an uneventful flight except dodging a few thunderstorms and getting into a little nasty IFR.
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| Chicago return - My little guy - Welcome home Dada |
