Project for Wayne's day: Fly the 206 to the eastern border of Louisiana with Gerald, and if possible go into Mississippi to try to make contacts there. At least that's how it was supposed to happen.

The biggest problem here in the damage zone of Hurricane Katrina is communications. While we have pretty good telephone service right here in Walker, we have abysmal service in the harder hit areas, such as Slidell, Bogalusa, and the towns of southern Mississippi. Some cell companies have pretty good service, while others have none at all.

So because of that, I had heard from one of the docs we had deployed to Bogalusa yesterday for the first time, and had made arrangements to pick him up by air the following day, and got the hospital phone number to reach him for his pick-up time later. I also got a call from another doctor in a shelter near Hammond, and arranged to pick him up and take him on to Slidell, and had to pick up another worker in Slidell to bring back for a flight tomorrow.

The day began nicely enough, with perfect weather and a great flight from the grass strip to Baton Rouge. We left there and headed for Hammond, and successfully picked up the doctor there. We then flew on to Slidell and delivered him to awaiting personnel. Here is also where we met our first casualty of the storm: a little Cessna turned up on its nose leaning against a building, apparently a total loss.

From there, we flew north along the northwest edge of the hurricane path, where the winds had been terribly damaging to the trees and buildings below us. Thousands of trees were snapped off part-way up their trunks, or were pushed over with roots pulled out of the ground. The damage was amazing.

We landed at Bogalusa, where we had attempted to call many times with no further response (except for a recording from the phone company). On our arrival, we were greeted with more pitiful little planes resting in an inverted position, with extensive damage. One Piper Cherokee had had one tiedown come loose, and it had flapped around by the other until it had broken the attach point on the wing. It looked like it had crashed right where it was. Even the prop was destroyed and the nose gear broken off.

We were still unable to reach the hospital by phone from the airport, so finally an old ferry boat captain/pilot gave us a ride in his van to the hospital, and regaled us with flying stories as we rode. When we reached the hospital, we learned that the doctor had procured another ride back to Walker. The drive did give me a chance to see first-hand the extreme damage to trees and structures in Bogalusa. That most of the houses are standing is amazing.

While making my flight plans for Mississippi, I got a desperate call from one of our nurses who was in New Orleans, needing a shipment of antibiotics. This trumped anything I had planned for Mississippi, and I headed back to Slidell where I knew we had the drugs she was asking for. We picked these up along with the volunteer who was returning for the flight tomorrow, called the nurse to tell her to meet us at the New Orleans airport, and took off. We had not been able to contact the coordinating facility to make arrangements for flight clearance, so when we did get airborne, we had to make all of those contacts over the aircraft radio. It took 20 minutes just to get clearance into the TFR (temporary flight restriction) area, after talking with an AWACS and with New Orleans approach control. The rest of the flight was very straight-forward, and we were able to drop the medicines off and get back to Baton Rouge to drop Gerald off, then back to the grass strip.

My visit to Slidell gave me a chance to see the clinic we have put up there. We have a couple of Red Cross nurses helping us there, and two doctors and one of our own nurses. That clinic has seen nearly 600 patients since it was stared three days ago. These guys are doing the kind of work we can do well, and I'm proud of all the work going on there.

On the return drive from the grass strip, we stopped at the Livingston shelter where Dr Wallace is seeing patients. She and the nurses there have made a very efficient little infirmary. I feel very bad, though, for the folks who are staying at these shelters. The beds are cots lined up with basically no privacy. These conditions work for short-term emergency survival, but it won't take long before people will be ready to climb the walls. I really hope these shelter residents can be relocated to something a little more civilized soon.

Our team is very tired by this point, and I'm glad that we're able to rotate many out this weekend. They've done a wonderful job, working many long hours. They have dealt with difficult conditions, difficult people, and very little rest. I salute them for all of their hard work, and I hope that the experience can be reflected on as a good one for each person.