Bay Area medical teams go to Louisiana after Ida devastates area already struggling under pandemic
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A Tampa Bay area non-profit is coordinating flights for several doctors and nurses to Louisiana to help people in need after Hurricane Ida. So far, at least two flights supplied by St. Pete based non-profit Sol Relief landed at Louie Armstrong International Airport Tuesday with several volunteer doctors and nurses from Project Hope.
With the power out and all flights canceled at Louie Armstrong International Airport, getting there wasn't easy, but after several calls, Sol Relief was able to make it happen.
Doctors and nurses with Project Hope are among some of the first volunteer medics to hit the ground in New Orleans.
"The airport looks like a ghost town with not one plane in any hangar. The roads are all closed," Project Hope volunteer physician's assistant Edward Hendrickson said.
The strength from Hurricane Ida left behind a blanket of devastation throughout the city. It made getting the volunteers there much more difficult for volunteer pilot Kevin Barton.
"There's no air traffic controllers. You don't know if you can land there. No one had any power so there was just no way to know where we could land," Barton said.
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Barton with Sol Relief helps supply the transportation while organizations like Project Hope supply the people who will help out.
Once on the ground, volunteers got busy setting up shop at a local community center where they'll treat any disaster victims in need offering services from basic medical attention to mental health needs.
"Every non-profit that's here helping is coordinating together. Number one so we're not duplicating the same things, but also so we are being the most useful," Project Hope Senior Program Manager Harley Jones said.
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Also coordinating with Sol Relief is Sandy Reeves with True Rescue, which now has about a dozen boaters on the water rescuing people who are trapped.
"You go from house to house. You pick up people. You pick up pets," True Rescue Vice-President Sandy Reeves said.
Reeves is now working to find a volunteer helicopter to fly in drinking water to more than 70 people stranded by floodwaters in the Parish area of northwest New Orleans.
"If I can't get the helicopter, I'm going to rally boats and we're going to make a route to get boats in there to take supplies," Reeves said.
As Reeves mentioned, a helicopter would make the process faster, but if she can't find one, boaters will just have to make a couple more trips to get supplies to people. As for Sol Relief and Project Hope, they have another plane headed there Wednesday.