Houston • They’d been to war zones and they’d trained for years. But members of the Utah National Guard’s air unit based in West Jordan had never seen anything like the mission in Houston.
The men from G Company, 2-211th General Support Aviation Battalion arrived on Aug. 29 as Hurricane Harvey crawled over southeast Texas, leaving a deluge that remained for weeks in parts of the region. They’d spend eight days there, returning to Utah on Friday.
Their main task for three days was to scour the Port Arthur area near Beaumont alongside dozens of other aircraft for people who hadn’t already driven, waded or boated out of their homes to safety.
They found stranded and injured Texans who waved white flags, their feet surrounded by murky, rising water. Others climbed to their roofs and made an unmistakable sign of distress: ‘SOS.’
Flying in two Black Hawk helicopters, the teams became part of a massive response that possibly saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives.
“They did a great job, I can tell you that,” said Robert Dean, 60, who left as waters rose around Rose City two hours east of Houston.
The hoists
The battalion flew as rain still fell in Texas. By the end of the storm, Harvey would drop more than 4 feet of rain, water-logging a massive swath of land and partially or totally engulfing more than 100,000 homes.
Not understanding what was heading their way, some residents were reluctant to leave. Dean’s grown family resided near the house he’s lived in for nearly four decades, and they initially thought about waiting out the storm.
“My daughter hated my guts,” Dean said of his decision to get out.
Others in the area, such as Kent and Hersey Kirk, were determined to stay. They could find dry ground, they thought. The storm would end and the waters recede.
Residents in the Kirks’ neighborhood were flooded less than a decade ago in Hurricane Ike. The city clawed back from that catastrophe, tried to build up city hall to protect it from another storm. But here, nine years later, was a new threat. A bigger one.
After all other neighbors had left, the Kirks remained, but they couldn’t hold out for long as the waters continued to rise. Dennis Landry, a Rose City resident with a fan boat, picked them up the and took them to the railroad tracks, which were higher and still dry.
That’s where the Utah National Guard crew spotted them. Chief Warrant Officer Joe Galbraith positioned the chopper over the tracks as Sgt. 1st Class Zach Kesler descended from a hoist onto the ground. One-by-one, Kesler secured Hersey and Kent Kirk to the straps that were used to raise them to safety.
After dropping them off at a base, the Black Hawk simply took off and looked for more people to save.
“I’m losing everything again,” Hersey Kirk would later tell The Epoch Times. “We got flooded in Ike, in [Hurricane] Rita. My husband just got a new car — well, it was new to him anyway. It’s sitting in five feet of water.”
Over three days, the Guard crews from Utah rescued about 35 people, though they didn’t keep track of the names of those individuals. They did, however, take a few photos including one of a crying child on the edge of the helicopter. Another photo showed what the crew said was a 98-year-old woman who refused to let go of her walker as she was hoisted to the helicopter.
“She hoisted outside that aircraft for some time,” Specialist Curtis Jeffs said later. “I could not get that walker out of her hands.”
Sgt. Joe Shelley was tasked with jumping out of the aircraft and being lowered to victims below. The water could come up to his knees or it could come up to his neck. It’s hard to tell from above.
Once on the ground, it’s not always clear that it is in the victim’s best interest to be raised to the Blackhawk above. One woman, Shelley said, had rotting feet that he feared would become infected if he had to bring her back into the hazardous water to get her to the chopper. Instead, he left her in bed in her second-story room to await a boat he said would be sent.
“These people are looking at you saying, ‘You’re my savior. You’re here to help, and you’re leaving?’” Shelley said. “You have to instill some confidence.”
Across Houston, neighbors rescued each other by jet ski, fishing and fan boat. Sometimes, they’d open the front door and drive a watercraft right into the foyer.
Shelley was also lowered after the crew got word from the U.S. Coast Guard of a baby in critical condition. The Utah crew was equipped with full medical supplies and a local surgeon, Chris Stephens, and could have flown to Memorial Hermann hospital downtown.
Shelley searched houses and called out for anyone who knew of an infant in need. He never found the baby.
The wonder
A week after the storm left Houston, the Utah National Guard was still part of a large military presence in the area, sustaining the ongoing response.
The rescues were significantly more exciting than the so-called ring routes the teams fly throughout the area, essentially taxiing equipment and personnel between bases across Texas.
But the teams remained at the Sugar Land Regional Airport, committed to the massive effort that included 17,000 troops from the Texas Military Department, active duty forces and teams from various National Guards.
As their time in Texas wound down, the Guardsmen wished they would have had time to get to know the people they save. It was too loud and hectic on the ground and in the air to strike up a conversation, other than to assess medical need and respond. That leaves lingering questions. Were the children OK? How were the Kirks?
“It’d be nice to get it wrapped up,” Merrill said. “You think about the significance of their situation. They have no idea what they’re gonna go back to.”
The Kirks were taken to a hotel in Louisiana. Their house likely sustained serious damage. On Tuesday, Robert Dean and other residents stood on the main road into Rose City as residents waited for a fan boat to ferry them through their neighborhoods. A bridge nearby washed away, and Dean feared residents might be discouraged to even rebuild their small town.
Kelly Kirk, Kent’s brother, said by phone that Kent was doing fine and the family expected the process of bouncing back to take months. He said he wanted to thank the team that helped keep his brother safe.
“They’re fine,” Kelly Kirk said, ”and we appreciate the National Guard.”