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Air Force Pararescue Team Plucks Stragglers
A pararescue jumper is lowered to a flooded building to help a woman spotted from the air.
(By Ann Scott Tyson -- The Washington Post)
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The Pave Hawk veered southeast of New Orleans toward the Gulf of Mexico, passing huge barges and platforms washed inland, and shipping containers scattered like so many colored wooden blocks.
Flying over St. Bernard, a town surrounded by floodwaters, the co-pilot, Capt. Jeff, 44, of Helena, Mont., suddenly spotted a figure in the doorway of a house waving a white cloth. "It's a lady, and she wants out!" he said as they drew closer.
Instantly, the men executed a flurry of rapid decisions, fluidly communicating their location, altitude and any obstacles below. Alex went down on the hoist. He came up minutes later holding a woman wearing blond pigtails and a blue T-shirt, sobbing in his arms.
A few minutes later, Brian came up with the woman's fiance, who is disabled from hip and leg injuries.
The two New Orleans natives cried and hugged each other as the helicopter sped forward. Over the whir of helicopter blades, bits of their story seeped out.
"The water came up so fast Monday, all we had time to do was jump in Bill's boat!" said the woman, Vicki Ann Campe, wiping her face with a cloth.
Campe and her fiance, William John Brossette, lived on the boat for days with their six dogs and Brossette's parents. They put out buckets to catch the rain for bathing. But their legs were covered with sores and rashes from being in the water. "It was up to my chest," said Campe. The water slowly receded, but the coastal neighborhood was still an island surrounded by water, making evacuation difficult.
Brossette's parents, who have heart ailments and had run out of medicine, were evacuated Monday.
The couple was distraught over leaving the dogs -- three Chihuahuas, two poodles including a blind one named Sandy, and a mutt named Crazy. "We must have left out at least 100 bowls of food and water," Campe said.
The Pave Hawk touched down at New Orleans International Airport, and Alex and Brian hopped out to help the couple alight. Campe, tears again filling her eyes, gave Alex a big hug. He smiled, sheepishly.
