Coast Guard crew recounts rescues in flood zone
Some of the Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles crew members who helped in rescue attempts in the Chehalis area last week are, from left, Petty Officer Jarod Enright, Cmdr. Jeff Salvon-Harmon, Lt. Justin Hunt, Petty Officer Greg Mayes, Petty Officer Mike O’Leary, Petty Officer Michael Sterrett, Lt. j.g. Christian Polyak, Petty Officer Steve Sergeiko and Lt. Scott Barton. The group is standing in front of a helicopter at the Port Angeles station on Ediz Hook.
By Brian Gawley
Peninsula Daily News
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"The first thing we noticed was lights in the water," said Petty Officer Mike O'Leary of Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles.
"People were signaling to us with flashlights."
O'Leary was part of one of the helicopter crews from the Port Angeles station which rescued flood victims in the Chehalis area and south of Hood Canal and the Belfair and Olympia areas early last week.
The crew that O'Leary served with left at 1 p.m. last Monday to fly 155 miles south to flooded Chehalis in Lewis County, where it rescued at least 19 people from buildings in a muddy ravine.
Another crew, which left at 8 p.m. that day, plucked people from the Chehalis-Centralia Airport after it had flooded.
Other crews also flew out to rescue those in need.
"This is what we trained for," said Lt. j.g. Christian Polyack, copilot of a crew piloted by Lt. Justin Hunt.
The crews' training over water at night was useful on this mission because there were no references except for buildings, Polyack said.
Said Hunt, "It was kind of scary flying down, because you don't know where all the wires are."
Their night vision goggles made spotting people's flashlights in the dark much easier, Hunt said.
Frightened but relieved
O'Leary said that several rescues were conducted in a muddy ravine by the Chehalis River about six miles west of Chehalis, where the pilot was able to lower the helicopter as close as 20 feet above the ground.
The 19 people rescued were flown to the Chehalis-Centralia Airport, then taken to an emergency shelter.
"They were pretty scared, but definitely relieved," O'Leary said.
He remembered in particular one terrified 95-year-old woman who was plucked from the top of a rural home outside of Chehalis.
After he was lowered to put the woman, her daughter and a man into a rescue litter, Petty Officer Greg Mayes hoisted them into the helicopter and helped the people out of the basket.
"I just had to grab her out of the basket, and she wasn't helping at all," said Maynes, who had never before hoisted a person in a non-training situation.
"She tried to pull my arms off me."
Those who were rescued left everything they had.
O'Leary said each person wanted to take a bag of belongings, but the only one permitted to do so was carrying his mother's medications.
One man just wanted a ride back to his house.
"We told him we aren't a taxi service," O'Leary said.
The water kept rising as the crews worked.
Airport stricken
O'Leary watched as the Chehalis-Centralia Airport was covered with up to three feet of water within 20 minutes while the crew members were walking to the staging area from there.
The water also flooded two Lewis County patrol cars parked there.
It forced rescuers to land at an airfield in the Lewis County town of Toldeo and at the football field at W.F. West High School in Chehalis.
They attempted to fly farther south but were discouraged by limited visibility, 30-knot sustained winds and their unfamiliarity with the area, O'Leary said.
The crew that left at 8 p.m. from Port Angeles helped in the rescue of people from the flooded airport.
The followed Interstate 5 south to get to it, and watched other helicopters hoisting people off roofs as they traveled.
At the airport, they lowering a rescue swimmer in only a harness instead of the usual litter basket because it was faster.
The rescues from the airport were from about 35 feet in the air.
Another rescue from a Wal-Mart roof was from about 75 feet in the air, Hunt said.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at 360-417-3532 or brian.gawley@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: December 09. 2007 9:00PM