Angel flights take off from PTC to aid victims

By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizen.com

It was a case of angels with fixed wings. Members of the Peachtree City chapter of Angel Flight of Georgia took to the skies Sunday afternoon bound for Poplarville, Mississippi, to deliver much-needed supplies for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Thousands of dollars of donated food and other essential supplies took to the skies in a squadron of four private planes from Falcon Field in Peachtree City.
Angel Flight is focusing its attention on the smaller communities hard-hit along the Gulf Coast that have gone unreported, even inaccessible, to major media outlets. Those people, too, are in desperate need of help.
"We got a call from the only working phone in Poplarville [Miss.]. It was from the Sheriff's Office," said pilot Bill Bircher. "They were out of supplies and had no way to get out. The airport has no fuel available so we'll have to make this a round trip flight. The flight will take about an hour and a half."
Poplarville is a town of about 3,000 people midway between New Orleans and Hattiesburg, Miss., on Interstate 59 and U.S. Highway 11 and about 40 miles inland from the Gulf.
Loaded into the four aircraft were bottled water, disposable diapers, Advil and diaper-rash ointment and, of course, food.
One man put $8,000 worth of diapers and medicine on his credit card, while Bircher's flight cost $3,000. Family and friends of Angel Flight's Harlan Hamlin scoured the neighborhood earlier Sunday for donations from friends and neighbors.
Far from the end of the story, more donations were expected to be arriving Sunday night and all day Monday, Labor Day, with more flights to the hurricane-ravaged areas planned for Monday.
Volunteers Sunday included pilots and passengers from Peachtree City, Kennesaw and Oak Grove. Residents left in Katrina's wake are in desperate need of food and money, the essentials that can sustain life.
"There are so many in need and this is our way to help," said Hamlin. "This is God's work."
Hamlin was coordinating the rescue flights into mid-afternoon Sunday, taking calls from volunteers on one line while talking with a reporter on the other line.
Hamlins company is Flight Explorer, which provides air-to-ground messaging capability for aircraft operations.
Hamlin said he returned from the coast Saturday after installing software and gear to help airports "see" relief flights in the crowded skies over the damaged areas.
"Let's don't lay by the pool today," Hamlin urged, saying he was intent on getting people to donate to the needs of the ravaged area around Pearl River County, Miss., once home to about 40,000 people, most of whom have no communications with the outside world even as late as Sept. 4.
Hamlin said the pilots planned to land at a non-functioning airport that has an open runway near Poplarville. He said the planes probably would fly to Mobile, Ala., to refuel before landing in Mississippi and unloading their relief supplies.
He said they might bring evacuees back with them, but he wasn't sure what situation he would find on the ground.
Hamlin said that Peachtree City-based World Airways also planned a flight from Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta to the coastal area with a DC-10 loaded with relief supplies.
Those wishing to donate to Angel Flight of Georgia may do so at angelflight-ga.org.
Additional reporting by Cal Beverly. Posted 5:10 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005