Hurricane Katrina was still in New Orleans when Coast Guard Auxiliary Aircraft Commander Buddy Roberts first got the call from Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Houston on Sunday, August 28.
There was a need for a video assessment of New Orleans, and a request had been made by ABC News to allow one of their videographers to accompany the mission and film the damage and the Coast Guard in action.

After checking the weather (winds were still 60-70 mph over New Orleans) and his aircraft, Roberts picked up Coast Guard Active Duty Public Affairs Officer Adam Wine and the ABC photographer and headed for New Orleans.

As Roberts piloted his 02A Cessna (a military-surplused high-wing twin engine equivalent to the civilian 337 Skymaster) over the city, Roberts and his passengers could see that better than fifty percent of the city was flooded, and that the levees keeping the water out of the city bad been broached by the storm in several places.

PAO Wine and the ABC photographer documented the damage, and rolled their cameras as Coast Guard Helicopters extracted victims from the flooded city.

Two days later at midnight, Roberts again was called by Coast Guard ATC Houston.

This time it was to pick up two riverboat pilots from upstream Mississippi River locations and ferry them back to Navy New Orleans, where they would catch helicopter rides to Coast Guard Cutters in the Gulf of Mexico, and then be transferred to ships wishing to navigate Mississippi.

First was s stop in Conroe, Texas to pick up one riverboat pilot and then to Baton Rouge to pick up another. That was the easy part. Landing at Navy New Orleans had to be done without benefit of lights, tower or electricity at the base. No problem for veteran pilot Roberts, the Auxiliary Aviation Liaison in Houston.

From New Orleans, it was on to Houma, Louisiana, where a Coast Guard rescue swimmer who had been on leave was stranded. With an Aids to Navigation specialist on board the plane, Roberts made best use of his air time with a survey of the Aids To Navigation from the South Main Pass of the Mississippi all the way to Navy New Orleans and a damage assessment of the river.

From there, it was on to transferring personnel to their duty station in Iberia, Louisiana before returning to Houston.

Two more missions followed, moving personnel and equipment from base to base and serving as a photo platform.

Observing the Katrina damage, Roberts remarked, “It looked like an atomic blast without the heat or fire.”

“You could smell the natural gas” (in the affected area), he added.

From four flotillas in the Houston area alone, eight Auxiliary aircraft participated in the Katrina effort.

“To a person I have called out, they have responded,” said Roberts.

For Roberts, a Hurricane Andrew survivor and veteran pilot, it was but another opportunity to respond when his country called.