Chapter Appendix B - What Went Right
Section Department of Transportation
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Department of Transportation
The Department of Transportation (DOT) successfully coordinated one of the largest airlifts in its history to support the emergency evacuation of more than 66,000 citizens from New Orleans. This large and complex operation involved three federal Departments and a fleet of private sector and military aircraft.41 Additionally, the DOT Federal Aviation Administration quickly restored air traffic control and runway operations at the Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. This not only facilitated the delivery of relief supplies into the area, but also enabled federal authorities to execute a massive airlift of New Orleans evacuees. The Air Transport Association also coordinated forty domestic flights with continual DOD and civilian flights to evacuate a total of 24,000 people.
As a member of the DOT Region Ten Emergency ESF-1 response cadre, John Calvin was deployed for a period of over five weeks to the Louisiana State EOC and to the JFO in Baton Rouge. Working more than eighteen hours each day as part of the FEMA Emergency Response Team-Advance (ERT-A) he played a crucial role in post- landfall evacuation operations. Using ESF-1 controlled helicopters, he personally coordinated and led the evacuation of over 200 patients and staff, many of whom were non-ambulatory, from the rooftop of the flooded Louisiana State University hospital in downtown New Orleans. This dangerous but urgent lifesaving mission was undertaken voluntarily on John Calvin's part and at considerable risk, despite the fact that helicopter evacuations are not part of the traditional ESF-1 function. Additionally, John Calvin worked almost constantly, often on less than three hours sleep, coordinating military and ESF-1 buses and aircraft during the early phases of the evacuation. His personal efforts were instrumental in moving 210,000 people from New Orleans to shelters.
Contents
Prev
Next
Last
