LITTLE ROCK — One of two Oklahoma National Guard helicopter pilots who helped search for survivors and victims of the southwest Arkansas flood Friday said the destruction reminded him of the Hurricane Katrina devastation, albeit on a smaller scale.
“We saw maybe ... 12 to 14 cars washed down the river,” said the pilot, who did not give his name because he also was involved in a counter drug mission near Mena earlier in the day.
“We were flying up and down the river” and flying above hiking trials for about five hours but didn’t see a single survivor or victim, the 40-year-old pilot said.
“We saw a lot of debris, everything from refrigerators” to tarps, ice chests, clothing and even a tent floating beside a sport utility vehicle in the water.
The mission was neither pilot’s first time to help after a natural disaster. In 2005, the pilot said, they went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck and deadly flooding followed.
“We both stated that just in those concentrated areas where those campgrounds were [in southwest Arkansas], that’s what it reminded us of, but on a much smaller scale,” he said.
The flood washed huge chunks of concrete from one campsite’s parking lot, lifted cabins off their foundations and tore up roads, he said.
“It was just one of those perfect-storm events.”
The Katrina experience came in handy. The pilots knew to look for vehicles because campers might have tried to flee in them and become stranded or washed away.
“Every car that we found down the river, we got a very accurate GPS on and” reported it to authorities who could check out the vehicles, he said.
“We found some campgrounds where people were OK, but they were trapped” and were thrilled to see the helicopters, he said. But the pilots found other campsites “that were completely overrun with water” and no one was in sight.
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“It looked like someone took ... a big broom and just swept everything out,” he said.
“It’s probably going to take them several days to do a full search of everything we flew over” in the area, he added.
The pilots were already doing counter drug reconnaissance when they learned of the disaster. Because the flooded area was only about 18 miles away, they went to that area to help out and were the first pilots on the scene, both he and Lt. Col. Max Moss, spokesman for the Oklahoma National Guard, said.
Front Section, Pages 15 on 06/13/2010