|
Any thoughts of a flight up the Mississippi were quickly dismissed.
Going into the river, Howell later recalled, "I would have been
squished like a bug" (by the larger ships being tossed around by the
hurricane). With some old stout lines that were given to him by
the skipper of the CG Cutter Bonito, Howell secured Maņana to
pilings and concrete structures in the open water of the municipal
yacht harbor, some 500 meters from Coast Guard Station New Orleans.
Secure in her moorings, the 53-ton facility and her skipper saw
yacht after yacht break moorings, with many ricocheting off the
facility's sturdy steel sides. Maņana remained unmoved, and her
skipper chronicled the fury of the storm from the deck with his
camera.
The former Vietnam War helicopter door-gunner was not about to be
defeated by Mother Nature. And in the days ahead, he and Maņana
would make a vital difference to many and be introduced by the
Sector New Orleans Coast Guard commander, Capt. Frank Paskewich, to
Adm. Thomas Collins, Coast Guard commandant, as "our local hero."
As Katrina's winds abated, Howell threaded Maņana through the
harbor to Station New Orleans. The badly damaged station was without
electricity for a time and without potable water. It had been
flooded with 6 to 7 feet of water during the storm, but its main
concrete structure remained intact.
With the exception of minor cosmetic damage, including some bent
1-inch steel rails, Maņana was unscathed from her brush with
Katrina. The boat's generator was quickly able to provide the
station with essential power, the radios with communications and the
2,000-gallon potable water tank with badly needed water. Station New
Orleans was back in business.
When Howell arrived at the station, he was met by a skeleton crew
left behind to safeguard the facility. Gradually, active duty
personnel, having secured their families from harm's way, trickled
in and began the process of righting the station and preparing for
the thousands of rescues they would make in the ensuing days.
In the midst of it all, Maņana was their oasis -- a haven where
they could wash off grime, secure fresh uniforms and take a
momentary respite. From the boat's satellite dish, the watch at the
operations center could catch the news, and weary rescuers could
take their minds off what they had been seeing in the city by
watching a football game on satellite television.
As Tuesday morning dawned, other auxiliarists began arriving at
the station to assist.
Seven members from Flotilla 4-10 of Baton Rouge, La, responded:
auxiliarists Tom McKinstry, Tim Borskey, Terry Mills, Cleve
Chandler, Lenny Cappel, Charles Dupuy and Steve Guillory. They
brought with them two auxiliary facilities.
With the sporadic gunfire and other violence in the city,
auxiliary patrols were limited to the waterfront, but there were
many other ways the auxiliarists assisted at a station that was
beginning to swell with Coast Guard manpower.
With communications a major challenge for operations,
auxiliarists from several flotillas in Division 4 pooled their
resources and got under way with trucks and a camper. Gerald
Schneider, Lenny Kappel, Mike Baker and Bill Wellemeyer traveled to
the Leeville high site and got it operational. They also brought a
generator to the Leeville site and helped the U.S. Customs unit
there get powered.
[to top of second column in this article] |
 For 10 days, auxiliarists Jim Umberger and Bill Wellemeyer worked
long hours at the relocated Sector New Orleans command post in
Alexandria, La., with Umberger working 12-hour night shifts.
Back at Station New Orleans, auxiliarist Ed Jackson had arrived
on Friday, with his jeep towing his facility.
Speaking of his passage into the city, Jackson noted that he had
to jump a levee with his jeep and boat in tow to make it into the
station. Seeing a need for more potable water, he contacted his
son-in-law, the manager of a trucking company, and managed to get
6,000-gallon truckloads of potable water delivered to the station
daily.
With an estimated 400 personnel at the station by then, the
truckloads of water could not have started coming at a better time.
Auxiliarist Rand Henke shared with those at Station New Orleans
the health dangers of the post-hurricane environment and set up
sanitary and hand-washing stations and decontamination sites at the
station.
Auxiliarists Gerald Schneider, Bill Pritchard and Erston and
Karen Reisch ran numerous "errands" for the station, freeing other
personnel for more important tasks.
Auxiliarists C.F. Adams and Mike Brady also assisted as needed.
While all this was happening, auxiliarists Mike Baker, Bob Hazey,
John Buie and Francis Guillory, among others, flew patrols over the
Mississippi River, doing verifications of aids to navigation and
looking for oil and fuel spills. They also transported essential
personnel as needed.
Auxiliarist Doug Depp set up a rescue station on the north shore
of Lake Pontchartrain, on the Tchefuente River.
Even some who were trapped in their neighborhoods assisted.
Auxiliarist Don Diven, unable to get out of his area due to fallen
trees, kept a sharp eye on his immediate vicinity from his bicycle.
"I knew auxiliarists were a special group of people, but I was
surprised to discover just how selfless these volunteers really
are," said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Carter, Coast Guard branch chief for media
relations. "The Coast Guard is richer by their association, and so
am I."
The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary is composed of uniformed,
nonmilitary volunteers who assist the Coast Guard in all of its
varied missions, except for military and direct law enforcement.
These men and women can be found on the nation's waterways, in the
air, in classrooms and on the dock, performing maritime domain
awareness patrols, safety patrols, vessel safety checks and public
education.
The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary was founded in 1939 by an act of
Congress as the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve and re-designated as the
auxiliary in 1941. Its 31,000 members donate millions of hours
annually in support of Coast Guard missions.
[U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary
news release] |
