Chopper Rescuers Reflect, Marvel

To protect their aircraft, the men and women based at the Coast Guard air station in New Orleans evacuated before Hurricane Katrina hit. Then they followed the storm back to the city and went straight to work.

As Tracy Smith reports, they saved thousands of lives in their own backyard. Smith spoke with several of the rescuers.

"We flew in right after the storm, and the wind was still blowing 50, 60 mph," says rescue pilot Bill Dunbar.

Colleague Jeff Damotta says, "The houses were broken into matchsticks, and the ones that were still standing were up to their rooftops in water."

Added another team member, "It's amazing to see how things can go straight to hell, really fast."

Though it's been more than two weeks since the rescuers got their first glimpse of Katrina's wrath, the images still play daily in their minds, Smith says.

"People were using anything and any means possible to try to signal us," flight mechanic Jason Roberts says.

"Seeing all the people was the thing that had the biggest impact," rescue pilot Maria Roerick says. "The first day, they were just everywhere."

The decisions on who to take and who to leave behind were sometimes difficult.

"You know," Roerick says, "you do the best you can, and that's all based on your background and your values and your training."

"People are sitting there fighting, trying to get in," says flight mechanic Jason Bauer. "They are so scared. You see the look on their faces."

When people rushed the helicopters, they had to be stern.

"You got to just say no," Bauer says. "You got to stick to your priorities. You have to take the kids. You need to take the sick and the people who really need your help, and just let them know that you'll be back for them and not to give up hope."

"Remember, the first day, we were the only show in town," Dunbar says.

But in the days that followed, Smith says, more rescuers came from every corner of the United States, filling the skies over New Orleans.

"There were so many aircraft in the air," Roberts says. "I remember … one night, I was hoisting people, and I remember looking up and there were eight other aircraft, and all of us were in a hover, pulling people up off houses."

He calls it "utterly amazing" there were no accidents. "There is no textbook on how you pull people off of a house, when you are surrounded by power lines, trees and phone poles."

In just six days, their air station and crews from other Coast Guard stations lifted 6,471 people from New Orleans, "each rescue as remarkable and unique as the mission itself," Smith says. In the 50 years prior, their air station totaled 3,689 rescues.

"There was this woman," Roerick says. "I don't even know how she got there, but she was sitting on the roof of a car in a lawn chair, surrounded by water. We picked her up."

It was Roerick's first week on the job.

"You don't even imagine something like this ever happening in your career," she says, "and I wouldn't even had imagined it, had I not seen it for myself."

And what they saw, Smith says, was a city they no longer recognized. Several of their own homes were damaged.

"It's a selfless job," Dunbar says. "… It would haunt me the rest of my life if I didn't save somebody who needed help."

"In a terrible situation, you saw some people rise above what was going on to do the right thing and to do their jobs; that's what we did," Roberts says.

"It was overwhelming, flying over the city," pilot Olav Saboe says. "I guess, after seeing all the neighborhoods under water … being able to put that aside and focus on the mission of saving people. Every time I think of that, it, uh, makes my heart pitter-patter."

Smith says Katrina ripped a huge hole in their hangar but, otherwise, the crew members she spoke to are ready to get back to work.