A Call For Help - Mississippi

I received this note from a local dentist who just got back from coastal Mississippi late last night. I had great concern this was going to happen; all media attention has shifted to New Orleans with parts of coastal Mississippi being pretty much ignored. The communities of concern here are Waveland and Bay St. Louis. I have seen no coverage or attention payed to these places.

This is a long note, but please take the time to read it, and spread the word. Print it out and get it to your church and lets help these people.

Dear James,

You probably will not remember me but I emailed you some time ago about the 1974 Guin tornado. Anyway, my name is Keith Miller and I am a dentist in Vestavia Hills and also a private pilot. As you know, the people hardest hit in southern Mississippi have been neglected and FEMA non-existent.

Let me brief you on what we did before I ask my question. Earlier in the week while watching all the news stations on Hurricane Katrina, all attention was centered on New Orleans and nothing was said of how southern Mississippi had faired other than Biloxi/Gulfport. I made a phone call to a close pilot friend and local attorney Bob Echols Bob has a piper lance like mine at BHM and we have flown relief missions to the Bahamas before. Well, we started making phone call for donations of water,food,medicine, baby supplies, toiletries, etc. in bulk and we would fly these supplies down there ourselves and distribute to the most needed. We got a so-so response on donations.

Yesterday, Bob Echols and I loaded my plane full of all we had and headed to Gulfport/Biloxi airport as Lifeguard N1057H. But first, there is what is called a blanked Temporary Flight Restriction zone over the entire disaster area preventing air travel except for military and civilian relief aircraft. As you know, President Bush was visiting that area yesterday as well. Therefore, there was a Presidential TFR preventing all civilian air traffic. That is the FAA for you. TFR's were developed after the terrorist attacks in 2001. The procedure was to contact the FAA recovery desk in D.C. which we tried for a day and a half. We finally got through to the recovery desk just prior to departing and they denied us access. Even President Bush said cut all red tape. We took off anyway how due to the desperate need for these people.

As we got closer, we talked to Omaha 45 which is a military air traffic surveillance plane and he was handling all air traffic. We told him we were a Lifeguard piper lance with relief supplies and requested permission to land at Biloxi Gulfport. He cleared us in to the TFR and as we were at 2000 feet MSL, Air Force One helicopter and several Blackhawk helicopters passed 500 feet over us. They really did understand the dire need. We surveyed Biloxi and Gulfport and they suffered damage but have plenty of supplies.

We found a local who knew the area and drove us around to the areas hit by the east and northeast eyewall. This turned out to be Bay St. Louis and Waveland. These towns suffered catastrophic damage and are on limited supplies. We started working our way through church shelters asking people what they needed and who need to be evacuated out. On the way out, we stopped at a local Kmart where the parking lot was named Kamp Katrina. There were families with nothing camping under tents, tarps, and in their cars. The children were low on diapers and formula and had sunburn and bug bites.

There were several places we were told we were the first ones to check on them. Volunteers in Bay St. Louis are going house to house marking a black X on the house if their is a corpse and a red X for survivors and vacant houses. We went back to Gulfport and flew over to Stennis Int. airport in Bay St. Louis. A FEMA rep from Florida had set up post at the north end of the runway. All he wanted to do was inventory, do paperwork, and store the FEMA bought supplies. A Colonel landed in a helicopter and asked what was in one of the semi trailers. The FEMA rep said it was reserved for the EOC posts. The Colonel stated that their were families and children starving and running out of supplies in Waveland and Bay St. Louis. The FEMA rep would not budge and the Colonel told him in a diplomatic way what he thought of it.

We new we were not working with these guys so we found the local city commissioner. He organized a truck and a crew to load the supplies and personally deliver them to the victims at the parking lot. By the way, a national guard sergeant and his wife stranded in Waveland asked us to contact his family in Dallas to tell them he is alive and to bring a tank of gas so he can get back to his group at Biloxi. He is to leave for Iraq on Monday.

Today, David McGiffen who is a Cardiac Surgeon with a plane like mine loaded our planes to capacity with supplies donated by people we contacted and flew them to Stennis airport. We were arranged a crew that was shipped in from "New Mexico to off load our supplies onto a flat bed truck. Two vans were provided for us by the Wisconsin Forestry Division deployed there to clear trees and a local resident now homeless to show us around. We ended up getting to ground zero on Main Street in Bay St. Louis.

James, houses are moved inland. There are only foundations and swimming pool outlines left on the first three blocks. We were the first people they had seen to offer help. We offloaded our supplies at the Stennis high school and got a list from the local sheriff deputies their what else they need. Nylon rope, blankets, food, water, basic livable items. These people have nothing but the clothes on their backs. People their reported the water got from 30-38 feet. A local deputy who spent the storm in a boat rescuing people said he rode out Camille when he was ten and this is ten times worse. I went through the F-5 tornado in Guin in 1974 and the damage there is worse. The sheriff said the got a hurricane and a tsunami at the same time.

So, what I am asking is if you are even in town this weekend to ask your church members and anyone else to please help out our neighbors and ask for donations in bulk. Bob Echols, David McGiffin and myself will personally fly and hand deliver the supplies to the workers and victims at ground zero. We have transportation for us and the supplies in to Waveland and Bay St. Louis arranged. We are planning on spending Sunday collecting supplies and plan on multiple flights on Monday until all supplies are delivered.

I have arranged with David Moore (GM at Mercury Air Center BHM) a hanger for storage of the supplies until we load them. It is the old Hanger 8 Building on the south ramp of runways 18/36. People making deliveries are to call Mercury Air Center at 599-7613 and they will sent someone to open the gate and direct them. Any thing you can do to help will be greatly appreciated. We are donating our planes and fuel for these missions. You can contact me: (c)205-902-1935 or (h)970-5527.

H. Keith Miller