LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Airmen with the 320th Training Squadron here help unload luggage from a C-9 Nightingale aircraft that brought Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans on Sept. 3. Evacuees are being inprocessed, given a medical checkup, fed and put into temporary shelters. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Mark Borosch)
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Senior Airman Eric Knug unloads luggage from a C-9 Nightingale aircraft that brought Hurricane Katrina evacuees here from New Orleans Sept. 3. Evacuees are being inprocessed and given a medical checkup, fed and put into temporary shelters. Airman Knug is assigned to the 37th Logistics Readiness Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Mark Borosch)
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Ralf Price Sr. and his 6-day-old son, Jerry, arrive here from New Orleans on Sept. 3. The Hurricane Katrina evacuees are being inprocessed, given a medical checkup, fed and put into temporary shelters. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Mark Borosch)
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- (From left) Ralf Price Jr., Dianna Price and Ralf Price arrive here with their family. The Hurricane Katrina evacuees arrived Sept. 3 from New Orleans. Evacuees are being inprocessed, given a medical checkup, fed and put into temporary shelters. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Mark Borosch)
9/4/2005 - SAN ANTONIO -- Ralph Price Sr. had a smile on his face Sept. 3 when he and his family got off the C-9 Nightingale aircraft that brought him here from New Orleans.
He and his family had finally escaped what he called “the hell-hole of New Orleans.” And, he said, the nightmare of the New Orleans airport.
The waters that inundated New Orleans, he said, “washed away our home. We lost everything.”
The retired Army Ranger, who served in Vietnam, said the situation at the New Orleans airport was intense. There were sick and injured people everywhere and everyone is trying to get out on the first airplane available. He said he was not happy with the treatment he received there.
“They treated us like (prisoners of war) there,” Mr. Price said. “They tried to split up my family and send us on separate planes.”
He said he almost got into a scuffle because of that, but he did not let anyone split up his family.
Although he is safe in San Antonio, he also knows the people in New Orleans are dealing with a monumental situation. They have to evacuate thousands of people from a city with no water, electricity and, in some cases, law.
“You don’t know how happy we are to be here,” he said.
The couple’s two sons -- Dante, 9, and Ralph Jr., 8 -- had never been on an airplane. The Navy aircrew treated them like royalty, Mr. Price said. He said the mood on the medical evacuation aircraft was soothing and the boys loved the flight, which they spent looking out the windows.
The aircrew, he said, “had a nice bunch of people.”
Now he finally feels that his family, which includes his wife, their three sons -- including 6-day-old Jerry -- and his father-in-law, is safe, he said. After a medical checkup, a meal and a shower, the family will move in to temporary housing at nearby Lackland Air Force Base.
“I wanted a shower more than food and water,” he said.
Lackland AFB is the Air Mobility Command hub for all aeromedical evacuations out of the areas stricken by the hurricane. The base will take in more than 25,000 people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Mr. Price does not know what will happen to his family now. They have no home to return to. For the moment, he said, they have a roof over their heads, and he is grateful for the help the Air Force has given him and his family.
