[HCRA] Fw: [RACES] Hams involved with Medivacs

[Daniel J. Sullivan]

This is an amazing story of hams thinking outside the box to solve a
problem. Definately worth reading.

Dan S
KO1D
----- Original Message ----- 

Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2005 10:44 PM
Subject: [RACES] Hams involved with Medivacs


> Local ham-radio operators help rescue effort
>
> By Rocky Scott
> DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
>
>
> Tallahassee ham-radio operators took part in the daring helicopter rescue
> Friday of about 1,500 patients and staff from two New Orleans hospitals
> besieged by darkness, dank water and gunfire.
>
> "There were a lot of heroes in this operation," said Chuck Hall, 52, the
> HCA Inc. division vice president in Tallahassee after the evacuation of
> patients and staff from Tulane University Hospital and Clinic ended
because
> of nearby gunfire.
>
> The Tulane facility is an HCA hospital, and Hall said he knew the day
after
> Katrina hammered New Orleans and the Gulf Coast that the damage made the
> evacuation inevitable.
>
> "They had no power, very little food and the water was rising because of
> the levee breaks," Hall said.
>
> He quickly chartered about 25 helicopters, including medivac helicopters
> from Sacred Heart Hospital and Baptist Hospital in Pensacola.
>
> But Katrina had laid waste to the Big Easy in a manner few ever would have
> imagined. There was no power, no clean water, no food and, worst of all,
no
> dependable lines of communications.
>
> The first 17 flights out of New Orleans were medivac choppers bringing
> patients to West Florida Regional Hospital in Pensacola. Each chopper
> returned with 750 pounds of food and medical supplies for the anxious
> patients and staff at Tulane.
>
> Bob Peterson, chief operating officer of West Florida Regional, said the
> first efforts to remove patients and staff Tuesday often were dangerous.
>
> "The (helicopter) pilots reported five near misses," Peterson said. Bad
> weather and a jury-rigged landing pad - the hospital's helipad was under
> water - were playing havoc with flights.
>
> Worse still, there was no way Hall and his staff could get information to
> pilots and no one on the ground to guide them onto the top floor of a
> four-story parking garage that was serving as a landing zone.
>
> The elation after the first lift-off from the beleaguered hospital Tuesday
> quickly faded, Hall said. Worse, city conditions were deteriorating.
>
> Looting and gunfire erupted and 100,000 stranded, scared residents became
a
> force ready to spill into anarchy.
>
> Enter the Tallahassee Amateur Radio Club, Florida Division of Emergency
> Management and some old-fashioned ingenuity.
>
> State Emergency Management officials suggested Hall contact the local ham
> radio club to solve the communications dilemma.
>
> Urged by rapidly rising water - 8 feet deep in places - and the growing
> knowledge that New Orleans had become a drowning pool, the ham operators
> fashioned a satellite reception device atop an 8-story building in
downtown
> Tallahassee.
>
> Then three of them - Theo Titus, Gene Floyd and Bill Schmidt - all boarded
> a helicopter in Tallahassee Wednesday and headed for New Orleans.
>
> Atop the garage at Tulane, they set up a generator-powered ham radio with
a
> satellite uplink.
>
> By Tuesday afternoon, the choppers were up and running, and Hall and his
> co-workers in Tallahassee were able to give directions to pilots, but only
> on paper.
>
> Charlie Lien, a radio club member in the Tallahassee command post,
> explained the communication system this way: the three operators would
> radio Tallahassee via the satellite uplink.
>
> When the broadcast was received, workers would use two-way radios to get
> the instruction to HCA personnel in the building - the jury-rigged
> satellite receiver would only work at the top of the building.
>
> HCA officials would decide where the next load of patients was to be taken
> - most were initially moved to the closed New Orleans Airport - and those

> instructions were relayed via walkie-talkie back to the top of the
> building, up to the satellite and down to the top of the Tulane parking
garage.
>
> But there was one more step.
>
> The ham operators couldn't talk with the civilian and military helicopters
> taking part in the airlift so, as each chopper landed, landing
instructions
> in longitude and latitude were written on a piece of paper and handed to
> the pilot.
>
> Once airborne, the pilots would radio their destination to Federal
Aviation
> Administration officials, who were directing what amounted an aerial
> version of 5 p.m. rush-hour traffic.
>
> Landings were dangerous. Pilots unfamiliar with tall buildings around the
> garage had to put down on top of a parking garage never intended to serve
> its makeshift function. Rotor blades whirled dangerously close to
buildings.
>
> Then, Hall said, another hero emerged.
>
> John Holland, a LifeNet employee who was helping with the evacuation,
> jumped out of a medivac chopper and began working as a flight director,
> giving pilots signals as they threaded their way down to the concrete
deck.
>
> "He worked on the deck 36 hours straight," Hall said. "He also was
> instrumental in relaying information to us about the resources that we
needed."
>
> Military helicopters, including Blackhawks and a CH-47 Chinook, also
joined
> the airlift.
>
> Spirits in the Tallahassee command center soared. The military helicopters
> could carry more patients and staff than the medivac or other chartered
> helicopters.
>
> But they were dashed when, within hours, two of the helicopters, including
> the Chinook, were pulled out to help in other parts of a city that was
> rapidly degenerating into a war zone.
>
> "We were tired and exhausted," Hall said. "We could hear the noise and
> activity in the background." The "activity" in this case meant sporadic
> gunfire.
>
> Fog, rain and darkness were constant companions.
>
> But the aerial caravan kept rolling until about 1a.m. Thursday, Hall said.
> Darkness made it too dangerous to fly. The civilian pilots did not have
> night goggles and the military pilots, even though they had the night
> goggles, were disoriented by the dark that had buried the city.
>
> By Thursday, it was clear two public hospitals nearby - Charity Hospital
> and University Medical Center - also were in dire straits.
>
> Desperate patients from Charity and staff members there were wading
through
> the floodwater to reach the Tulane facility.
>
> Boats from the the Louisiana Department of Fish and Wildlife appeared and
> helped ferry the critically ill to the garage through water fouled by
> sewage, debris and bodies.
>
> Hall found more heroes in the garage.
>
> "They were taking care of patients, often in the dark, with no way of
> knowing when the next chopper was coming," he said.
>
> All through Thursday until about midnight, patients and staff from two
> hospitals, often in groups of two or three, left the chaos below and were
> ferried to the airport, to other hospitals, to safety.
>
> By Friday morning, Hall said about 300 people, including another 30
> patients from Charity, remained. All Tulane patients were safely out.
>
> The day brought more heroes.
>
> A Sacred Heart medivac worker left his helicopter so a doctor and nurse
> could board and leave. He was not included in the final headcount and
> remained alone at the hospital for several hours.
>
> Hall said the man finally got the attention of police and was airlifted
out
> late Friday afternoon.
>
> As the day wore on, reports of gunfire and advancing chaos strained
pilots,
> patients and personnel.
>
> Time was working against the Herculean effort. Pilots can fly only so many
> hours until they have to rest. Helicopters need gas and maintenance. Sick,
> frail people cannot last long in stifling heat and humidity.
>
> Hall said the warning from the National Guard came shortly before the last
> helicopter lifted off: Gunfire was less than a mile away. The airlift had
> to end - now. Smoke from a nearby fire drifted across the landing zone.
>
> "We felt ecstatic," Hall said, his voice weary after nearly four days with
> little sleep. "It was just an overwhelming relief to have, what we
believed
> at the time, the last people out."
>
> But across the street, at Charity and University Medical, there was no
> cheering. Patients and staff remained. Hall ordered the helicopters to
> continue the airlift - at HCA's expense.
>
> He said Federal Emergency Management Agency officials were taking over the
> rescue effort.
>
> Late Friday night, Hall said the rescue effort was a small victory, but
> bigger obstacles remain. Hospitals have to be rebuilt. Patients have to
get
> well.
>
> And New Orleans, the immortal and slightly immoral Belle of all Southern
> Belles, still faces a dark future.
>
> "We had to overcome some small hurdles today," Hall said, "but the big
> hurdles are in front of us."
>
> ------------------  my add
>
> Medivac flights into Tampa International begin a midnight.
>
>
>
>
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