MSDN Developer Community Champion

Flys to Mississippi To Lend His Services in this Time of Disaster

Bill Steele, my MSDN counterpart in the Great Lakes District, flew his Piper Seneca 3 to aid in the disaster relief in MS. This guy is incredilbe. Read his own words from his latest email.

"Here's my current status... to date, I've delivered about 17500 meals and Tomorrow will be my last day, on Thursday I'll fly up to Shreveport and pick my sister and her kids up and take them to Cincy. She evacuated on Saturday and has been working in the shelter up there ever since. Her house is currently out of any danger but she's still staying away.  

 

Yesterday and Today were very busy days, I flew 10 drops each day. Some of you have been asking "where are you flying to?" Well, to date, I've delivered to about 11 or 12 different airports, even one "Closed" airport, which was basically wiped off the map... I actually landed on a stretch of elevated road next to the airport.

 

Here is a list of the names I remember... Baton Rouge Intl (based here,) Skywest (near Mobile), Gulfport, Houma, Chain Municipal, Lakefront (completely wiped off the map) and Pascagoula... also very badly damaged. There were others, but I'd have to check the logs. Most of them are tiny airports or airparks. They aren't the big commercial airports you'd be used too. ;-)

 

Some of you have asked what an MRE is... well, I'll bring one to the team meeting, but here is a link to learn more about them: https://www.answers.com/topic/mre . BTW,  I had a fantastic dinner Tonight... the steakhouse next to the hotel treated us to Steak, Ribs, Baked Potatoes, etc... awesome...

 

...I've had a "Relief Coordinator" with me on most flights to handle logistics at the destination airports. I've also had some deliveries back to KBTR, things like important financial documents (checks, I think) and other types of assets. I haven't evacuated any people yet, I was planning on doing that, but they decided to continue to use the Coast Guard and National Guard copters to do that work and let us deliver food. (They are also delivering food... but they do it right to someone's house.)

 

One of the biggest questions is "How can I help?" Well, it's simple... each flight costs roughly $200 just for the fuel alone. I am flying for an organization called "Angel Flights" which normally shuttles sick kids to hospitals on available seats... however, during this we're also shipping food/supplies. Angel Flights is part of a larger organization called the Air Care Alliance (ACA.) ACA handles all the funding for all kinds of aircraft related relief efforts. You can go to their site at https://aircarall.org and donate (I recommend that if you donate to them, please do it via the Microsoft resources... that way we double the money going to them.) You can also donate directly to Angel Flights at https://www.angelflightamerica.org ."

 

Godspeed, Bill