Hernandez recalls one very tiny patient they evacuated: a baby born overnight in the Superdome, at the peak of the storm’s intensity. The little girl’s name? Katrina.
The pilots then moved to shuttling people
off the I-10 causeway. Because power was out across the city, Webb, flying a VFR ship, had difficulty maintaining visual references after the sun went down. He followed closely behind Kanauka, whose EC135 was IFR equipped and had a much better searchlight.
The first day they arrived, they flew until about 2 am the next day, until exhaustion forced them to remain overnight in Lafayette, Louisiana. There they grabbed a few hours’ sleep on the floor of Acadian Ambulance’s helicopter base before flying back to Houma early the next morning and reconnecting with Hernandez. He’d snagged what seemed to be the only two rooms still available, at a bed-and- breakfast owned and run by a judge and his wife. The two pilots shared the “honeymoon suite” while Hernandez bedded down in a much smaller room. “The judge and his wife treated us very well. They had all sorts of great food waiting for us at night when we came back. I can’t tell you how good that was,” Hernandez says. Otherwise, the days were long, tense, and sad. Upon landing atop Tulane University Hospital, where the lower three floors were under water and the power was out, both ships would keep their rotors turning as nurses ushered passengers aboard. The trick was to land, load, and leave quickly, making way for the next helicopter coming in. The hospital’s evacuation took more than a full day to complete. The last ones out were teams of doctors and nurses, whom Kanauka described as having “that thousand- mile stare,” exhausted from having worked 48 hours or more without sleep or food. Everywhere the team looked, they saw people
confronting loss—of a loved one, a home, or a life they had once lived. Out on I-10, Webb recalls ordering a man carrying his briefcase to either toss the briefcase or get out. He chose to get out. “I could take three people in the back and one up front with me. My effective cargo limit was 1,000 lb., or four
passengers. They didn’t understand how critical my weight issue was,” Webb says. “My rule was, I carry only people, no things.”
A couple of hours later, he plucked four more passengers
off of I-10, including that same businessman. This time, his briefcase was nowhere to be seen. Another time, Webb, shouting to be heard over the engine’s roar, told a passenger who’d just climbed into the front seat next to him not to touch any controls. The young woman, likely in shock, couldn’t speak and began sobbing uncontrollably. “I had to shout, and I had to hear her acknowledge that she knew not to touch the controls. But I felt so bad. She was so scared,” he says. During one search-and-rescue mission, Kanauka came across a half-destroyed shack where a few people had gathered to await help. He landed nearby, got out, gave them
a few bottles of water that he had with him, and left with five passengers aboard. Those who remained begged him to bring food.
Upon his return, with Webb and his EC120 in tow, a much
larger group of people was waiting. Initially, they began to charge the helicopters as they set down. But with the rotors still turning, Kanauka was able to motion for them to wait while he and Webb unloaded a supply of water bottles, military rations, and even diapers before taking off again. “It probably had been several days since those people had eaten,” he says. Webb adds that they never knew the names of the many people whom their team rescued. But one thing about them sticks out in his memory: “I never saw a person I flew who had shoes on.”
– By Dan Reed
2020 Q4 ROTOR 33
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY BRUCE WEBB
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