Diary of a superstorm

Coast Guard leaders established temporary command posts out of the storms’ reach, and members from California to Maine started getting “the call.” Some of them were flight instructors, now pulled back into active response operations. Others specialized in repairing aids to navigations along coasts and rivers, while others were electrician’s mates, cooks, or recent flight school graduates. Katrina was about to test them all, in every way conceivable. But for now, they just knew they needed to be ready for what was to come.

Saturday, August 27, 2005 - Katrina reaches Category 3 intensity by 5 a.m.

Saturday, Aug. 27

By 5 a.m., Katrina reaches Category 3 intensity.
At 10 a.m., officials in St. Charles Parish, St. Tammany Parish and Plaquemines Parish order mandatory evacuations.
At 11 a.m., Heartland District stands up its Incident Management Team.

Credit: National Hurricane Center

The National Hurricane Center's "cone of error" forecast graphic for Hurricane Katrina at 5am EDT on August 27, 2005

As the hurricane moved closer to Louisiana, the District’s assets were out of harm’s way. In Alexandria, the district set up an alternate Command Post in the Louisiana Hotel and Convention Center, with phone lines, computers, and hotel rooms.

Map showing relative locations of Coast Guard Station Lake Charles, Marine Safety Unit Baton Rouge, Air Station New Orleans, and Station Grand Isle.

“I get word out to the industry that it’s time for them to hunker down, to take necessary precautions,” Paskewich said. “I tell them that by Sunday, if the storm continues on its track, I’ll [close] the entire river to vessel movements and cargo operations.”

It’s time to hunker down.

CAPT Paskewich:  “At the 0800 meeting on Saturday, it became very apparent that this was a storm of tremendous strength and that it was headed this way. We decided we needed to evacuate not only our low-lying units but to start getting our folks here in New Orleans out of the area. heads up to our alternate command post in Alexandria. They get the Command Post set up with phone lines and computers, set up hotel rooms, etc. I get word out to the industry that it’s time for them to hunker down, to take necessary precautions. I tell them that by Sunday, if the storm continues on its track, I’ll down the entire river to vessel movements and cargo operations.”

Coast Guard leaders were all-too-aware that New Orleans hadn’t yet told residents to leave. The city issued its first voluntary evacuation order at 5 p.m., urging residents in particularly low-lying areas, such as Algiers and the 9^th Ward, to get a head start.

Although members were taking the storm seriously, many assumed they’d be back home soon. BM2 Mancuso’s crew, safely moored in Baton Rouge, decided to stock up on the essentials – food, water, ice.

We may need to stay on the boats a few days

BM2 Mancuso: “We left Grand Isle around 6:30 on Saturday morning. When we arrived in Baton Rouge, we moored up next to tugboats, barges and Coast Guard construction tenders. Then we waited out the storm in Baton Rouge. We were able to go to the store and we all chipped in. We just kind of had a feeling that if it’s as bad as they said it was, we may need stay on the boats at least two or three days in New Orleans. We never thought it was going to be seven days. We stocked up on drinks and ice and stuff. So we fared pretty good later that week, when the Coast Guard was trying to get water to all of these thousands of evacuees and take care of their own people at the same time.”

Map showing relative locations of Coast Guard Station Lake Charles, Marine Safety Unit Baton Rouge, and Station Grand Isle.

At 11 a.m., Heartland District stood up its Incident Management Team. Meanwhile, CAPT Kevin L. Marshall, the District’s Chief of Staff, went to stand up the District’s “away” IMT in the Robert A. Young Federal Building in St. Louis. CAPT Marshall and his staff planned to return to New Orleans in a few days; they ended up staying in St. Louis for over two months.

We became the largest Coast Guard air station in history.

APT Callahan: People realized how big this was going to be, and Atlantic Area Command started channeling forces into ATC Mobile. We shut off the training and turned our instructors into operators. They knew what had to be done and they started doing it. We very quickly became the forward operating base for the entire Coast Guard. At times we had over 40 aircraft and over 1,500 personnel working out of here, which is unprecedented. I mean we basically opened the gates to all the TAD forces that came in and you couldn’t go into a space on this base without tripping over a cot or somebody’s little cubbyhole where they were sleeping. We ended up being the largest Coast Guard air station in the history of the Coast Guard.

Answering the call

Coasties from duty stations all over the U.S. move out to assist with search, rescue, and recovery efforts.

Credit: U.S. Coast Guard photograph by CWO Adam Wine

HOUSTON (Sept. 12, 2005) A Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft crew from Clearwater, Fla., prepares to transfer people and supplies for Hurrcane Rita and Katrina.

Credit: U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Paul Roszkowski

KODIAK, Alaska (Aug 31, 2005)--Coast Guard Petty Officer Miguel Martinez loads his luggage into a C-130 aircraft at the air station here in preparation for a flight to Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Fla. The C-130 air crew is flying to Clearwater to help in the response to Hurricane Katrina. More than 4,000 Coast Guardsmen are assisting with rescue, recovery, hazardous material clean-up, transportation and aids to navigation in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Credit: U.S. Coast Guard photo by PA3 Beth Reynolds.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Sept. 15, 2005) Port Security Unit (PSU) 307, based in St. Petersburg, load up busses that will take them to New Orleans. One hundred members of the PSU will assist in securing the Port of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The unit spent over nine months in Kuwait last year.

Photo: A Coast Guard cutter sits at anchor in the twilight near the downtown.

Credit: U.S. Coast Guard photograph by Petty Officer 2nd Class Bobby Nash.

NEW ORLEANS, La. (Sept. 4, 2005) -The Coast Guard Cutter Spencer, a 270-foot medium endurance cutter homeported in Portsmouth, Va., sits at anchor in the Mississippi near the heart of downtown Sept. 1, 2005. The cutter Spencer is in town to aid in the relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims in the greater New Orleans area.

Photo: A Coast Guard aviation team member hugs his son beside a C-130.

Credit: U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Paul Roszkowski

KODIAK, Alaska (Aug 31, 2005)--Coast Guard Chief Aviation Maintenance Technician Marc Triglia hugs his 11-year old son Lucas before he leaves to participate in recovery operations after Hurricane Katrina. Triglia is one of seven Coast Guard C-130 crewmen from Kodiak who are being sent to support operations in the areas affected by the hurricane. Coast Guard C-130 crews are being used to haul much needed supplies and personnel in the affected areas.

Credit: USCG Photo by Gary Johnson, USCGAUX

NEW ORLEANS, La. (Sept. 5, 2005) Rescue Swimmer Chas Mitchell of Coast Guard Air Station San Diego and Auxiliarist Gary Johnson on a Hurricane Katrina rescue mission in a HH60.

Photo: Crew poses in front of their HH60 helicopter.

Credit: U.S. Coast Guard photo by Gary Johnson, USCGAUX.

New Orleans, LA (Sep 8, 2005) - - Auxiliarist Gary Johnson flew with AMT Jay Wright and LT. CMDR Chuck Bell as part of their crew on an HH60 for hurricane Katrina rescue missions.

Credit: U.S. Coast Guard photo by Christopher Evanson

NEW ORLEANS, La. (Sept. 29, 2005)- A Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Kodiak, Alaska, based out of Air Station Houston drops a sandbag to repair a damaged levee. The Coast Guard dropped 18,000 pounds of sand while working hand in hand with the National Guard to reconstruct the breeched levees. This photo also depicts the flexibility of the Coast Guard. The flight crew was stationed in Kodiak, Alaska, aboard a helicopter from Air Station Clearwater, Fla., conducting a mission in New Orleans.

Sunday, Aug. 28, 2005 - Just after midnight, Hurricane Katrina reaches Category 4 with 145 mph winds.

Sunday, Aug. 28

By 7 a.m. Katrina is a Category 5 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph.
Around 10 a.m., New Orleans declares a mandatory evacuation.
At noon, the Superdome opens as a “refuge of last resort.”
Coast Guard personnel, helicopters and small boats from around the country start heading toward New Orleans.

Credit: National Hurricane Center

The National Hurricane Center's "cone of error" forecast graphic for Hurricane Katrina at 7am EDT on August 28, 2005

At the Louisiana Hotel and Convention Center, Capt. Frank Paskewich and his crew from Sector New Orleans set up an Incident Command Post (ICP) as part of the broader Coast Guard response. Paskewich was named Incident Commander, with Capt. Terry Gilreath as his deputy.

Paskewich closed the Mississippi River from its mouth to Natchez, Mississippi. He also closed the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the ports of New Orleans and Morgan City and “all bridges, floodgates and locks” in the vicinity. Vessels that were unable to make it out to sea found a safe anchorage, doubled up their lines and rode out the storm.

Map displaying where the Mississippi River had been closed from the mouth of the river to Natchez, Mississippi.

The Atlantic Area Commander, Vice Adm. Vivien Crea, directed a surge of reinforcements from all over the country. Aircraft and flight crews from air stations Atlantic City, Cape Cod, Clearwater, Elizabeth City, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Barber’s Point, Astoria and even Kodiak started preparing to head to Louisiana. Coast Guard Strike Teams were dispatched, along with Port Security Units (PSUs), Marine Safety and Security Teams (MSSTs), Disaster Assist Teams (DATs) from three districts, and DARTs (Disaster Assistance Response Teams) from the Great Lakes District (then known as District 9).

That evening, Rear Admiral Duncan told Louisiana Gov. Kathleen B. Blanco the Coast Guard was ready. “When the winds calm down enough for people to feel safe coming out of their house and if they feel that they need help, I want them to see an orange helicopter somewhere overhead that they can wave at and we’ll come get them.”

The two closest air stations to the affected area, Air Station (AIRSTA) New Orleans and Aviation Training Center (ATC) Mobile, got ready to make that vision a reality.

ATC Mobile would become the staging area for all those incoming members and assets.

Capt. David Callahan was about to do something none of his predecessors had ever imagined: turn the Coast Guard’s only aviation training center into a “full-blown Coast Guard air station.” If the storm kept its current trajectory, his school’s instructors – who usually spend their days teaching young officers just out of basic flight school – would soon be leading search and rescue missions.

Map showing relative locations for Coast Guard Sector Houston, Station Lake Charles, Marine Safety Unit Houma, Air Station New Orleans, and Aviation Training Center Mobile

Although search and rescue flights tend to get the most public fanfare, nothing happens without working assets. So ATC Mobile’s aviation engineering division chief, Cmdr. Melvin Bouboulis, prioritized maintenance. He wanted as many helicopters as possible ready for SAR operations. His staff prepositioned spare parts and stocked up on aviation fuel. Over the next two weeks, ATC Mobile would run through 210,000 gallons of fuel – enough for two normal months of Coast Guard aviation operations. (CDR Bouboulis also flew SAR missions in an HH-60 for two days, ultimately saving 82 lives.)

Air Station (AIRSTA) New Orleans was also bracing for impact.

From: Jones, Bruce CAPT. Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2005, 10:12 AM. To:. Subject: Katrina. -- This time tomorrow Katrina's eye will already have passed over the desk I'm sitting at now. Max winds over 175, they say it's already the second or third largest hurricane to hit the US in recorded history. We're still hoping it'll loop to the right just enough that NOLA won't be in the worst quadrant. Sent all the nonessential folks away yesterday. FLying our five helicopters out in 2 hours. Going to spend the next 30 hours or so in Lake Charles LA then come back in behind the hurricane Monday evening or as soon as possible to do so. Dreading what we will find when we return. Probably, extensive oil pollution from damaged pipelines and offshore platforms; destruction of barrier islands and coastal towns; terrific damage to buildings and homes; heavy flooding; and lots of people on rooftops and in trees. -- Here's a nice photo from one of our training flights last week. Those 47 foot motor lifeboats are awesome machines. -- See ya - hope all is well up north. -- Bruce -- CAPT Bruce Jones - Commanding Officer - Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans

He evacuated all non-essential personnel, but he stayed in place, along with four helicopters and their crews.

“We elected to stay onboard the unit until the day before Katrina hit … to ensure that we could respond to any pre-hurricane SAR,” said Capt. Bruce Jones, the commanding officer. By 2 p.m., with no SAR requests coming in, he finished evacuating the station.

Jones sent two helicopters to Houston; one of them was flown by LTJG Shay Williams, a prior Army enlisted member. AIRSTA New Orleans was his first assignment. “Twenty years later, I still call Bruce Jones Captain,” Williams, now retired, told us in an interview for this piece.

Meanwhile, Jones and two other pilots flew to Lake Charles, where they spent the night monitoring the Weather Channel and trying to get enough rest to fly the next day.

Mississippi & Alabama

While the tragedy of New Orleans received most of the media’s attention at the time, the coastal areas of Mississippi and Alabama too suffered catastrophic damage. The Coast Guard responded in these areas even though many stations were damaged or destroyed.

Chief Warrant Officer Steve Lyons, the commanding officer of Station Gulfport, secured his station and evacuated his personnel to safety on Sunday, Aug. 28. Prior to departing, they responded to two search and rescue calls on Casino Row, saving two lives before Katrina’s landfall. They returned to their station by 7 p.m. Monday evening to a scene of total devastation – Station Gulfport no longer existed.

Map showing relative locations of Coast Guard Station Gulfport and Casino Row

Credit: U.S. Coast Guard

GULFPORT, Miss. - The remains of Coast Guard Station Gulfport following Hurricane Katrina, September 2, 2005.

Disregarding their personal discomfort, complete lack of communications, no restrooms, water or food, Station Gulfport’s crews – assisted by personnel from PSUs 308 and 309 – were underway for 396 hours, running 36 vessel sorties. They saved two lives, conducted three medical transports, and assisted 275 Vietnamese-American fishermen who had weathered the hurricane on their fishing vessels and were stranded without food or water.