article on airlift relief from BBP and Phoenix
Flood relief takes wing thanks to Valley pilots
They will deliver food, water and supplies to devastated Mexican town
Luci Scott and Jack Kurtz
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 8, 2006 12:00 AM
MULEGE, Mexico - Several private pilots in the Valley have teamed up to fly relief missions into Mexico, bringing supplies to a remote village on the
Baja peninsula battered over the weekend by Hurricane John.
Jack McCormick, who owns Baja Bush Pilots, left Chandler Municipal Airport on Wednesday in his twin-engine Aero Commander. He brought with him 100
gallons of water, landed in the mainland Mexican city of Guaymas to pick up food donated by the Mexican Red Cross, then flew across the Gulf of
California to an airstrip about a half-hour's drive to Mulege.
The town of 3,100 has about 500 Americans living there, many of them retired. advertisement
Before he left Chandler, McCormick put out a call for help from other pilots, and he said he expected up to 20 private aircraft from around the
Southwest to fly relief missions.
McCormick enlisted the help of Tempe businessman and pilot Don Downey, who plans to leave early today for Guaymas to pick up supplies destined for
Mulege.
Downey, a member of the Flying Samaritans, routinely flies volunteer doctors and dentists to a medical clinic in the Mexican fishing village of Lopez
Mateos. He said other pilots from around the Valley are dropping medical personnel at a hotel in Guaymas, where they will stay tonight until they're
flown to the clinic the next day. Meanwhile, the pilots will ferry supplies from the Mexican mainland to Mulege.
In Mulege, hundreds of homes were washed away or damaged when a wall of water came roaring down the Rio Mulege, the river that cuts through town and
empties into the Gulf of California. Local officials said at least one British expatriate was killed when he didn't evacuate his home in time to avoid
the floodwaters.
Along the river in the American part of town, Tim Higginbotham, 74, originally from Santa Monica, Calif., was busy Thursday cleaning out his new home.
Higginbotham explained to an Arizona Republic photographer who accompanied McCormick on the relief flight that the flood was a night he would never
forget.
"My wife and I were watching the Dodgers' game on the computer. It had been raining through the day, but it was just a regular rain. John Dinning, our
neighbor, was over and we made plans on how to evacuate just in case."
Dinning said he parked his RV on higher ground and slept on a mat on the floor, "so if it flooded, the water would wake me. About 3 a.m. (Sunday), I
rolled over on my mat and woke up soaking wet."
Higginbotham said he woke to a thumping sound, got out of bed and landed in 18 inches of water on the floor. He woke his wife and smashed a window
over the computer in the bedroom to escape.
"I went out first and pulled her out, the whole time the water was coming up in the bedroom," he said.
"I pulled Patti through and she came flying out the window and was swept downstream by the floodwater. I jumped in after her, and then our friends,"
who were about 50 feet away on higher ground, "tried to get us."
Higginbotham said he ended up pinned against a small storage shed on the edge of his property. He was hanging on to it when a small boat with his wife
and two others clinging to it floated past. He grabbed on to it.
"Suddenly the boat came to a crashing stop," he said. "We were stuck in the top of a palm tree."
The floodwaters receded nearly as quickly as they came, he said.
Silverio Gutierrez, 60, a lifelong resident of Mulege and a handyman for some of the Americans, said this was not the worst hurricane he had
experienced in Mulege. But close.
"The hurricane in 1959 was worse. But the damage this time was much worse," he said. "Back then, nobody lived near the water . . . But now, with all
the Americans who have moved here, the damage is much worse."
Mulege is special to McCormick, the Chandler pilot. Each March he leads 300 to 400 people there on whale-watching trips.
"Basically, the lower part of the town was completely destroyed," McCormick said.
Thursday, McCormick got word from the Mexican Red Cross that it wanted the Bush Pilots' help shuttling supplies from Baja cities La Paz and Loretto
into Mulege and other flooded-out towns along the Gulf of California.
McCormick said he expected 10 to 15 private planes from the United States to help in the relief effort.
McCormick said the pilots planned to continue to ferry supplies to the town "until we're not needed."
Other pilots leaving today are Bob Jackson of Ahwatukee Foothills, president of the local chapter of the Flying Samaritans, and fellow members Rick
Park of Chandler, Charlie Sheppard of Tempe, Keith Olson of Phoenix and George Hemminger of Nogales
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