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Of course aviation, mostly the rotary kind, is playing a huge role in the aftermath of Katrina. Commercial aircraft along with military, Civil Air Patrol and Coast Guard Auxiliary units from all over the Southeast are being deployed to the storm-hit areas and there's no shortage of spectacular rescue coverage from the flock of news choppers also vying for airspace. Although the media flights were permitted initially, the skies got too crowded over New Orleans on Tuesday and Brown said they had to be stopped. She said there have been numerous calls from aviation organizations wondering how they can help. CAP crews are trained for aerial photography and damage assessment as well as helping with search and rescue. The Coast Guard Auxiliary crews are also in the air. "Our Aviators were operational, surveying and taking pictures for the Incident Command Center." said William Crouch, Vice Commodore of the Auxiliary Eighth Coast Guard District Coastal Region. Auxiliary members are not covered by the same laws that enable to National Guard and Reserve units to leave work to report for duty and must ask for time off from their employers to join the effort.
As aircraft from the military, Civil Air Patrol and Coast Guard Auxiliary, not to mention dozens of media helicopters, flocked to disaster scenes in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, the FAA had some disasters of its own to cope with. Katrina did serious damage to numerous FAA installations, leaving controllers with little to work with, and, in some cases, nowhere to work from. "In Gulfport all the navaids were destroyed and the tower is uninhabitable. There was damage to other towers, as well," FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown told AVweb Wednesday. Three major TFRs have been established over New Orleans, the Mississippi and Alabama coasts and in many areas affected by the storm, operations are limited to rescue and relief aircraft for day VFR only. Three major airports were open for public use: Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Lake Charles. Brown said Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans was down to a single runway (01/19) with day VFR operations only and is only being used by relief aircraft. The other runway was flooded. New Orleans Lakefront is flooded and closed. A major radar site was knocked out, wiping out radar coverage below 10,000 feet. Communications sites were also wrecked and there is a limited number of radio frequencies available. Military controllers are helping the FAA maintain separation but, for many aircraft, it's see and be seen. "Portions of the Houston Center area are VFR only," Brown said.
Erich said:Eric again it is the mental attitude that it won;t happen to us but to other poor souls all over the world. also the morons with Ak 47 types are shooting at the evac heli's.
Adler were is your gunship man ? !would love to take out some agression on some of these low-lifes
evangilder said:I saw some gas stations on the news charging as much as $6.00 per gallon for gas! People that do that should lose their business. The stupid thing for me is that I have waited to fill my tank and now I'm going to give more of my hard earned money to another oilman.