MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
As we just heard, first responders are still searching for people who are missing after the floods that swept Central Texas. Among those searching are members of the U.S. Coast Guard. Commander Nathan Shakespeare is the Coast Guard air operations officer overseeing the Guard's response. He's at the Coast Guard base in Corpus Christi, and he was nice enough to take a few minutes to talk to us on the line now. Good morning, Commander. Thank you so much for joining us.
NATHAN SHAKESPEARE: Good morning, Michel. Thanks for having me.
MARTIN: Can you describe the scope of operations that the Coast Guard has been conducting near Kerrville?
SHAKESPEARE: Yeah, absolutely. The Coast Guard's - very quickly on Friday morning was notified about the response. And we maintain two assets on ready status all the time, so we launched our ready helicopter here in Corpus to head that way. It's 150 miles inland, so it's quite the trek for the Coast Guard and not an area that we're used to operating.
MARTIN: Wow.
SHAKESPEARE: Yeah.
MARTIN: Yeah, I never thought about that. Do you have any sense of how many people the Coast Guard has helped to locate so far?
SHAKESPEARE: Sure, absolutely. So, I mean, I think everyone's seen in the media the fantastic work of AST3 Ruskan. So on the ground here, he did the 165 number that's floating around. He helped those folks load into some partner helicopters, a Coast Guard Dolphin. Ian, Blair and Seth, the rest of AST3 Ruskan's crew, rescued 15 that day, and then we saved or assisted another seven people.
MARTIN: Wow.
SHAKESPEARE: So we were really, like, the very - kind of the bleeding edge of the response. We had the most impact.
MARTIN: You sure did. But can you just describe - like, is there a particular rescue or coordinated effort that stands out for you over these last several days where - you know, recognizing that, you know, the entire team is, you know, participating and helping in this effort. But can you just, you know, give us one story?
SHAKESPEARE: Sure, absolutely. So I would say the thing that's really sticking out to me is just the fantastic work from Ian and the crew to get the helicopter 150 miles inland in some really atrocious weather conditions and try to get on scene. So initially, they took off from Corpus and tried to fly low, working up the valleys. But the rain was so thick and the clouds so low, they ended up having to - punching into the clouds inadvertently and climbing up, diverting to San Antonio. They tried to go above the clouds and do an instrument approach in the helicopter down to Kerrville. And unfortunately, the intensity of the rain, working with the air traffic control, was just too much. They were unable to punch through the weather at altitude, so they diverted for a second time.
On their third attempt to go in, they kind of tried to loop in from the southwest of the storm and then were unsuccessful then again because of the extreme weather. And only on the fourth time were Ian and the crew able to work up a valley and make it into the operating area and make it to Camp Mystic to begin their operation. So just - it's a little tough to describe it in the truncated time here. But, you know, taking off at 6:30 a.m. in the morning and then getting on scene seven hours later, with four different kind of bites at the apple, trying to - trying really hard to get the helicopter and the air crew in to effect some rescues - a Herculean effort.
MARTIN: I think you did a great job describing it. I mean, I think I get the picture. And it sounds incredible, required incredible skill and incredible training, and, you know, thank you all for this work. But can I just ask you this? The logistics of this are hard enough. Can - how about the emotional toll of this?
SHAKESPEARE: Sure, absolutely. I would say the interesting thing about that is just how much control we have and how much visibility we have. So the Coast Guard is so oriented to our ability to support operations kind of at the shore and looking offshore. So, you know, we're kind of in contact with Ian and the crew throughout the day for their attempts to get in, and trying to do some coaching and help and kind of validate the plan and the assumptions as they're working their way inland. And then, at least for me, kind of an emotional toll as they get on scene. The communications are just so limited for the Coast Guard there that once he's on scene, you really - we have no idea what they're doing. You know, we - they're flying so low that we - they're not on air traffic control radar. We don't...
MARTIN: Yeah.
SHAKESPEARE: ...Have communications with them, and, you know, we're not texting our crews in the plane. So really kind of just a lot of trust in the crew, once they took off on that fourth leg, that they were going to make it in there and make an impact. So I talked to Ian the next time after he's on deck in Kerrville, and he had left Ruskan on scene. But the helicopter had ran out of gas, so they were getting gas. I got a - kind of a quick brief from Ian on his plan and his intentions, and he took off back again. So there was really no discussion at the time about, like, the impact or the number of life saves. Everything's very mission-focused...
MARTIN: OK.
SHAKESPEARE: ...And kind of how we're going to accomplish the next step.
MARTIN: Well, thank you so much for sharing this, and thank you for your service and that of your other colleagues and teammates. We all appreciate it, and we're all thinking of you. That's Air Operations Officer Nathan Shakespeare. He's been leading U.S. Coast Guard rescue operations in Texas. Commander, thank you so much.
SHAKESPEARE: Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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