A Change of Plans

Well, the 7-day evac-fest was taken by somebody else. I would have liked the chance to see my Texas cousins, but it makes more sense for the remoter squadrons to get the long trips. Nashville flew several lines yesterday that shuttled twice from home to Gulfport, so I'm not surprised to see single-day trips taking priority on our schedule.

I went to New Orleans again. The improvements are already visible. There were two Hercs on the ground when we got there, and another 4 arrived before we took off. The wait was long, but not due to confusion and wasted time. They were loading up the Savannah bird when we landed, and we had to wait for Little Rock to get their load before our turn came around. The med crews there were never at rest. Patients were being brought to specific gates in the terminal, and brought down the gangways to the the flatbeds usually used for taking baggage to the aircraft. Then they were carried to our planes for loading. There were two baggage carts in use, so the flow of patients was constant. Meanwhile, the helicopter traffic is as steady as before, but directed to the other side of the terminal to avoid kicking up dust on our side. The bad news? The number of people to be carried out over the next week is now believed to be closer to 35,000. That's a whole lotta planeloads.

I carried 39 bed-bound nursing home patients to Monroe, LA. There was a problem at the destination end, because they thought we were bringing ambulatory cases in, so they brought vans. Vans are no good for litters, so the offload took nearly 3 hours while they called in every available ambulance in the county (parrish, I guess). A long day, but a significant improvement over last time.

C-130 units seen at New Orleans so far (just by me - this is not a complete list of units involved by any stretch)

Nashville, TN (of course)
Selfridge, MI
Oklahoma City, OK
St. Joseph, MO
Little Rock, AR
Louisville, KY
Savannah, GA
Charleston, WV
Channel Islands, CA