Red Ball Express Runs

Since its inception the Pearlington Project "Red Ball Express" has delivered 7 loads of much needed supplies to the people of Pearlington. Your generosity has been overwhelming and greatly appreciated by the residents of Pearlington and by those of us who facilitated the collections and transports.

Red Ball Express Run #1 - September 18, 2005

Our lead in this important effort has been noticed and emulated. Now daily donations of supplies arrive by the truckload from all over the country.

Thank you everyone for your caring, concern and generosity. The Roaring Fork Valley will forever live in the hearts and minds of the people of Pearlington.

Interview with Larry White, long-time Carbondale Fire Dept. Volunteer, about delivering a donated ambulance to the Pearlington Mississippi region

Q. Can you tell us about the trip down? We heard you had some trouble with the ambulance.

A. First I want to say thanks to our Fire Department and Ron Leach for giving me the opportunity to have the most fantastic experience, and the honor of taking that ambulance down there to give those people. Our goal was to get the ambulance down to Pearlington, Mississippi in a timely nd safe manner Our goal was accomplished. But just outside of Colby Kansas we had some trouble with the battery. A defective alternator caused the battery to explode. We were fortunate to find a 24 hour walmart where dewey and ray went in and got another battery and I changed the battery out. About 7:30 in the morning we drove on in to Colby and were fortunate to find a GMC dealership called Taylor Motors, and when Dewey explained to the owner what we were doing with this ambulance he moved us right up to the front of everybody and got a mechanic and they did thre best to track down another alternator, but since this was a very heavy-duty alternator that wasn't possible. So they just put on another brand new alternator which was a lower amp ratingl. Then they unhooked some of the electrical which we weren't using anyway and they also noticed that some of the carburation was a little gunked up so their mechanics spent another hour cleaning up. After completing that work that ambulance ran fantastic, so we owe them a great deal of thanks. When we went to pay for that the bill came to over $500 and they wouldn't take any money from us. The owner said this was his donation to the victims of Katrina, and he told us he thought this was a great thing we were doing. He tore up the whole bill. Everyone there, the mechanics and others were shaking our hands and telling us what a great thing we were doing. So you see, we felt very honored to be doing this. We owe Taylor Motors a great deal of gratitude for their service. It was a three hour delay. The rest of the trip the ambulance ran fantastic. We used 19 tanks of fuel, it was a long ways to go. It was a long trip for that ambulance, since it was only familiar with working around here in Carbondale. It was geared for the mountains, so we didn't go over 65 mph, and we didn't use the air conditioning all the way down there because we didn't want to lose gas mileage or stress the motor. We wanted to make sure it made it there. I'll say one thing though, I'll never ever complain about the traffic on Highway 82 or Highway 133 after having driven through St Louis during rush hour. Oh man, those people are going 75 miles an hour and they're two feet away from you! You've got four lanes of traffic to deal with, and it's very difficult to get in or out of those lanes.

Q. So did it take you three days to get there? A. No, about two and a half days, even with the breakdown in Kansas. We'd start driving about three in the morning, and we wouldn't stop until about 10 at night.

Q. So when did you first start seeing signs of hurricane damage?

A. That was around Hattiesville. MS We started seeing a few trees down and signs blown out of there frames. We were missing some of it when we were driving at night because at that point we were driving until abut 10 o'clock at night. It was easier driving at night because the traffic lightened up. When we were getting pretty close to Pearlington and did stop someplace to eat, the people were so generous and grateful to us. They would ask us what we were doing with that ambulance. We'd tell them and they'd come up and shake our hands and others would say, "Oh you're those guys, we've heard aboutyhou." Some had heard about us before we were even there. They knew we were coming, and that was pretty neat. It started looking pretty serious stuff about 50 miles away from Pearlington. It got very serious when we were driving down the highway and every highway sign was blown over. You know, those are some pretty heavy-duty signs. There weren't hardly any signs left standing. And the trees...they're huge, and it was just a jumble of lumber, like someone had gone through and clear cut and left everything. Either the tops were blown out or they were uprooted with huge root systems exposed or they were snapped off at the bases.

Q. The closer you got, did you start seeing lots of National Guard people or FEMA supply trucks, or any other indication lots of aid was moving into that region?
A. The day before we got there we three different times we saw convoys of National Guardsmen who were going the opposite direction. they were traveling north while we were headed south. We weren't sure what that was about, but as we got within 20 or thirty miles of Pearlington we started seeing National Guard there, and trailers set up for FEMA. Hattiesville was the only place you could get any gas. From there on out there was not place to get gas or sleep. As we got within twenty mile we were seeing a lot of damage. It looked like bombs had gone off, kind of like pictures of what Hiroshima looked like after the blast. It was just total destruction, and the landscape had very few trees untouched. Any tree still standing was leafless. It looked just like there had been a huge war there. We started seeing boats on the road, and RV trailers turned over, and saw piles of debris along the side of the highway. As people were cleaning up they pushed the debris over to the side of the highway. As we got closer we saw there was nothing left to save of the structures. It was as if the buildings had been blown up from within and then raised up and then collapsed upon itself. Jumbles of 2 x 4s, chairs, rerfigerators.

Q. So who did you first meet up with when you arrived down there?

A. We saw a power line crew in a truck, and all the signs were gone so we weren't sure exactly were we were, and we had to use the GPS to figure out were we were, and then the truck in front of us suggested we should talk to these guys who were getting ready to work on the power lines. They said we were within a 1/4 mile. It was hard to get oriented because you had thick forest all around you, and it's pretty level, so you can't get up on a rise somewhere and get an overview of the area and see where you're at. You're about 8 feet above sea level, and there's bayous all around you. I certainly wouldn't want to go walking off the road into the woods for a little trek there. You don't know if there are snakes or alligator in there, and it's very dense. There were a few trees standing, but it was pretty much one giant jumbled up mess. The mud was starting to dry up, it was all curled up, and when the wind blew it was a fine dust that you definitely did not want to breathe. It smelled like decay and wet and dead bodies, which I assume were mostly animal bodies. Finally we saw a sign on a piece of plywood directing us to Pearlington and came up to a football field and saw lots of tents where people were camping on a field, so then we knew we were in the right spot. We came up to a chain link fence and some National Guard, and we told them we were here to deliver the ambulance to the town for the relief effort. We were at the elementary school, and ikt was a pretty small school. The 28 foot wave went right over that school, and they had scattered lime all around for the control of mold and disease, and that looked strange, all the ground around the school being white. In the tents were lots of the volunteers who had come down to help. There were even some HotShot firefighters there to help. One tent was set up where they were doing cooking and another large tent was set up for a dining area. People were finally getting a hot meal, and it was being served at noon each day. People would walk out of the woods, bringing their children, a get a free hot meal. The day we were there we had spaghetti with meatballs, and a very fresh salad. There were also cots set up in the school for volunteers to sleep on, and the gymnasium they had turned into a warehouse, where all the relief goods were. I cn remember seeing in one corner of the gym, and you know how tall those ceilings are, it was piled practically to the ceiling with black plastic garbage bags full of clothing. Nobody was picking up those bags, and it was pretty obvious they didn't need clothing very much down there.

Q. So what did they need?

A. Well, mostly pretty basic stuff. A lot of them are trying to stay on their property, so they are living in there yards. Some houses are still standing, but they are structurally safe, and others are just piles of rubble, like I described earlier. People are trying to live on their property and are trying to clean up what they can, and they are just waiting to see what kind of help for them is going to come. What they need are tents, and especially cots, to get them up off the ground. You don't want to sleep on that ground - it's really nasty. They need sleeping bags, campstoves, coleman fuel, basically stuff for living outdoors. They also need tarps for sun shelters. They did have at the relief center quite a few tarps, but they were going out just as fast as they were coming in.

It's hot and muggy down there. they had a forklift and it was unloading all the supplies coming in, like the pallets of water. I touched base with the medical people who were there, and they had a clinic set up in the school, it was just a tiny room which had two areas sectioned off for patient contact, and they were extremely happy to hear about the medical goods we had brought them. they were talking over using the ambulance to go out and service the people in the woods, using a ambulance as a mobile clinic. they were planning to see if people needed any shots, and also

In the afternoon we got to ride with the firetruck, a pumper, which was manned by some firefighters from the City of New York. They'd been there for a while and had been going out doing welfare checks on people. They were taking out tarps and coolers of water for people and asking them what they needed, advising them about the supplies available back at the relief center. It was a fantastic experience riding with that fire truck from New York. We rode with them, and took lots of pictures, and when you disembarked from the truck and went up to a residence, you definitely had to identify yourself loudly, yelling Fire Department, is anybody here, and they'd be on the air horn, letting people know it was the fire department showing up at their place. We needed to let people know who we were, because they are very sensitive to strangers showing up and looting, and they will shoot you. He told us before we got off the truck, be sure to identify yourselves very loudly so they don't mistake you for a looter.

When we did contact people they were so friendly and glad to see us. they were hugging us, and shaking our hands, and offering us water. All three of us, Ray, Dewey, and mmyself got to go along and it was quite the experience. Ray was taking pics with the fire dept camera, and I was taking some with my throwaway. We got there about 8:30 in the morning and stayed as late as we could that day, but returned to Hattiesburg that night.

Later that day we met up with some people from Hancock County. Because Pearlington really didn't have an ambulance service of any kind it worked better to give the ambulance to the medical coordinator for Hancock County. That ambulance is definitely being used in the right place.

In the 15 yrs I've been on the department we've seen a lot of traumatic things, but this has been the most unique experience with the FD I've ever had. It was very humbling and makes you appreciate what you have and not complain, and shows you how fantastic the human spirit is. There were lots of American flags flying outside, and people are going to rebuild, they're not going to quit. This experience moved me deeply, and I want to go back as soon as possible. I have one more week of vacation time left with my job with GARCO Road and Bridge, and I'd want to go back down there one more time.

Well, you should get well rested up before heading back down there Larry. I want to thank you for doing what you did, and I'm sure that would be the same for all the other members of our deaprtment. would agree with that. People like you make me very proud to be a member of this fire department.