Maxwell serves as staging facility for hurricane operations

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Orville F. Desjarlais Jr.
  • Air Force Print News
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFPN) --  As evacuees continue to surge here fleeing the devastating affects of Hurricane Katrina, officials are bracing for the 1,300 Keesler Air Force Base training students expected here Sept. 3.

So far, 750 hurricane refugees from flooded coastal regions have made their way here to escape what President Bush described as the worst natural disaster in America’s history.

Among those evacuated were 416 Air Force Retirement Home residents from Gulfport, Miss., whose average age was 77. Of those, 62 with medical problems endured a 12-hour bus ride from Mississippi before staying overnight in a fitness center with medics. An Air Force Reserve 908th Airlift Wing C-130 Hercules aircrew then flew the elderly patients to Andrews Air Force Base, Wash., on Sept. 2.

“We’re providing support wherever we can,” said Col. Timothy Cashdollar, Air University Mission Support Group commander. “After we hunkered down for the storm, we started providing support for (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), ramp space for aircraft and reception services.”

And so far, that support has not gone unnoticed.

Standing in the sun alongside about 100 semi-trucks that carried ice, packaged meals, FEMA’s deputy staging officer for Alabama, Michael Post, said he is impressed with Maxwell’s support.

“We want for nothing,” Mr. Post said. “I can’t say enough good words about Maxwell. I’m working in the best staging area I’ve ever been to in my life.”

Contract big-rig truck drivers transport supplies from a major FEMA mobilization center in Selma, Ala., to three staging areas -- Louisiana, Mississippi and here. From here, truckers take their precious cargo south, where it is needed most.

Mr. Post, an ex-Army captain whose first disaster was the eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980 -- one year after the inception of FEMA -- said he has never seen cooperation among agencies like he has witnessed here.

The different agencies involved include the state of Alabama, FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Forrest Service and the Airmen here.

“When we had 43 trucks leave here yesterday, that was the greatest feeling I’ve felt in a long time. To know the supplies are going where they’re needed is satisfying,” he said.

While in billeting, where the evacuation reception center is located, it is difficult to distinguish the people who are homeless from those lucky enough to have a residence to return to later. Their faces resemble those of players in a world poker tour.

Wearing a light blue shirt, dark blue pants and sandals, Amy Szatanek looked like everybody else in the reception area. Except, it appeared she had more questions than most when she talked to family support center employees. That is because Hurricane Katrina destroyed her home.

Her husband, Maj. Jeff Szatanek, is still at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., where they need him there as the civil engineer squadron chief of operations. She fled with her three children and now has no idea what their future holds.

“We’d like to (permanently change stations) back to Montgomery, if we can, but we don’t know where the Air Force will send us,” she said.

More fortunate was Alameda and Bobby Hampton, a retired Air Force master sergeant. After serving 20 years, Mr. Hampton bought a home in D’Iberville, close to Biloxi, Miss., and lived there for 24 years. On Aug. 28, he and his family grudgingly left it behind and drove 237 miles in seven hours, ending up here. Now, they learned the hurricane only blew out a few windows and caused the ceiling to leak. They plan to move back in a week.

It takes a lot to penetrate Dawn Hilliard’s tough exterior. As a senior airman who works in the 42nd Mission Support Squadron retirements and separation section, she felt she has seen and heard it all.

Since Aug. 28, as she tapped in the names of evacuees into a laptop computer, she has seen them walk through the door, and she has heard many of their stories -- all to no affect.

That is, until a man walked into their makeshift reception area with no shoes on. In his arms he carried a 2-year-old child wearing only Pampers and a shirt.

Airman Hilliard nearly lost it. That was when Hurricane Katrina became real.

“It hit my heart,” she said, as telephone technicians installed more phones around her. The operation is steadily growing larger, and she needs more equipment and assistance. “I have children of my own and seeing that family made me feel very fortunate for what I have.”

Like Airman Hilliard, the rest of the Airmen here will continue to assist evacuees, and the rescuers who help the homeless and destitute people in the coastal regions, for as long as it takes.