Five years after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast the deep emotional and physical wounds are still being felt today. HBO recently premiered their new drama series TREME which follows a group of New Orleans locals as they struggle to deal with the aftermath of that brutal storm. As that show explores, life is full of disasters both big and small. Many of those “little” disasters we fix among our own family or circle of friends.
Although based on true stories, TREME is still just a scripted show. In the real world, when devasting natural disasters like hurricanes, tornados, floods, fires or earthquakes strike thousands of people instantly become caught in the crosshairs of destruction. Yet, as history has proven time and again there is one thing they can count on: help is on the way from the U.S. Military first responders. Nowhere was this more evident then during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
On some level we all lived through Hurricane Katrina as video images of the misery and destruction were broadcast seemingly around the clock. But while the news organizations were scrambling for their stories, the U.S. Coast Guard was busy at the hard work of saving lives. Days before landfall, it became evident that Hurricane Katrina was going to be whopper of a storm. In coordination with local, state and federal agencies, the U.S. Coast Guard began mobilizing its forces. Air crews were pre-stage in Texas, Florida and North Carolina. Semper Paratus or Always Ready is the Coast Guard’s motto. They were ready. Then came the waiting game to see how truly bad this storm would become.
Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on August 28, 2005. When all was said and done, Katrina would prove to be one of the worst natural disasters in American history cutting a path of devastation that stretched over 90,000 square miles or roughly the size of Great Britain. Clearly ground zero for the devastation was in New Orleans. It wasn’t so much that the brunt of the storm caused all the trouble but it was the breaching of the levees that lead to the massive flooding. To get a clear birds-eye view of just how horrendous these breaches were, you can trace the path of the flood aftermaths in this amazing animated timeline video created by the Times Picayune.
The moment the weather conditions cleared, the U.S. Coast Guard sprang into action. Hoist rescues from Coast Guard helicopters continued for days in the aftermath of Katrina. Survivors crawled out onto rooftops or balconies. They said there for hours and sometimes days, waiting for rescue. As Coast Guard copters approach, the survivors would desperately waved sheets or clothes to attract their attention.
In her testimony as part of USCG oral history of Hurricane Katrina, AST3 Sara Faulkner (Aviation Survival Technician 3rd Class) remembers an early hoist rescue: “This is the one I always get choked up on. That first balcony that we went to we specifically picked it because we saw women and children there. So it took me a while to get lowered down and in position and as soon as I kind of straddled the balcony – I’d grab onto it and then I’d sit on it – they put a baby in arms. And our rescue devices are too small for babies so I had to hold him in my bare arms [tearful], and just the look on the mother’s face. You don’t hang a baby over a second story balcony and she just shoved him to me, you know, and I kind of kicked out from underneath the roof because I didn’t have any free hands to even give a signal, and you know they hoisted me up and we started spinning. And I was just so afraid of him wiggling and loosing my grip on him because he maybe would start to freak out or whatever, but he didn’t thank goodness. That was hard but I did three more after that and I wasn’t as nearly freaked out, but that first one was scary.”
The air rescues weren’t the only part of the Coast Guard’s rescue effort. While the copters where flying overhead, down below Operation Dunkirk was in full force. Named for the WWII boat rescue across the English Channel, Operation Dunkirk was lead by CWO Robert Lewald, commanding officer of CGC Pamlico. One of the first stops for the Pamlico was Saint Bernard Parish where flood water levels reached 12 feet high. CWO Lewald and his crew moved over 2,000 people to safety from this particular flood zone. Lewald recalled how the Coasties take care of business, “We don’t really need to talk a lot. I think that’s why a lot of the other agencies had problems because they rely so much on command and control. Our culture is a little bit different. You know a couple words pass between a couple of sailors and the job gets done.”
At the peak of the Coast Guard rescue operations they had deployed 62 aircraft, 30 cutters and 111 small boats assisting in rescue and recovery operations. That added up to one-third of the Coast Guard’s entire air fleet. More than 5,290 Coast Guard personnel conducted search-and-rescue operations, waterway reconstitution and environmental assessment operations. More than 400 Coast Guard reservists were recalled to active duty. By Sept. 11, 2005, the Coast Guard had rescued more than 24,000 people and assisted with the joint-agency evacuation of an additional 9,400 patients and medical personnel from hospitals in the Gulf coast region. More than 33,520 lives were saved and evacuated. Beyond the human factor, the Coast Guard also scrambled to contain the environmental impact of oil spills sopping up over 7 million gallons of oil that has leaked into the waterways.
Today the USCG is still “always ready” to come to the aid of folks in need. There was a lot that went wrong during the aftermath of Katrina. Most of that can be traced back to bureaucratic red tape getting in the way of things. But for those survivors of Hurricane Katrina, the Coast Guard will also be remembered as genuine American heroes. They didn’t ask for anything in return. They saw what needed to be done and they rose to the occasion. LCDR (Lieutenant Commander) Shannon Gilreath, who was part of the mixed-forced rescue said it best: “The only complaint that he heard from the Coast Guardsmen was that they wanted to do more.”
—- Meyer
