Yes they are and will continue to be…my plan was to come down for 10 or so days and help out…but 21 days later (as it was a bit difficult to logistically get out of here as I’m sure you can imagine) it’s time for me to head home and check on the home front and take care of a few things on that business end! Aaron will stay and hopefully continue the amazing work down here that he and Helicarrier and Coulson are doing. The contract is currently up on the 2nd of November, but they are hoping for an extension with FEMA or if that doesn’t work out…then possibly something else pops up that they can assist with. He has been working so very hard and has been gone since the end of June….I’m not sure if he remembers his home address or not lol! This industry can always keep you on the road and I worry about him not taking a break and always on the go, so that’s partly why I have been taking more trips to see him as he’s never home….but that’s aviation and you take the work when you can get it!

As for this experience…I am extremely humbled, so very grateful, and absolutely blessed to be able to witness this in person….to help out where I can….and see things slowly get better for the people of Puerto Rico on a daily basis. Yes, they still have such a long road to recovery…but man are they strong people and I’m just lucky I had the chance to really see it. I think that is why I love to travel so much…..because once you start going different places, you realize how good you really have it in life, how little you really need, and how humble you really should be! It gives your life perspective (when you hope you have it all along) but it gives you that reality check you sometimes need every now and again. We all get carried away with our own lives and daily problems that sometimes we forget the bigger picture or problems in this world. Most of these folks have lost everything, yet are so grateful to receive a box of food and a case of water and always want to give you something back in return when they have nothing at all….it makes you want to do more…work harder every day to help out more and more in need…and for that….I am forever grateful….so thank you Puerto Rico!

~Puerto Rico Fuerte~

Puerto Rico’s power outages are the largest in US history.  More than a month after Maria knocked out the grid on the islands, the vast majority of residents still remain without electricity.  Over 80% of the island still DOES NOT HAVE POWER!  I said it in an earlier post, but we are staying by the Convention Center downtown at the Sheraton which is one of the very few hotels with power….and hotel rooms here are fully booked out for at least the next 6 months or more…that’s the same situation with any hotel that is open and has power. Once you leave the hotel and go a block, there are no traffic signals working, cars and trucks go and do whatever they need to do at their own risk, a few stores that have generators are open and are operating, its an absolute free for all.  So yes, today’s mission was a vital one as we took essential personnel out to finally figure out what’s going on with the power line reconstruction situation here….what’s been getting done…what hasn’t been getting done and where do we go from here.  We flew almost 6 hours and it was a somewhat disappointing as to what has not been happening here.  The people of Puerto Rico are anxiously awaiting power and areas are taking more time than I’m sure they’d like it to.  There are certain areas where the terrain is going to make it difficult and take longer but that’s where helicopters will become extremely vital and essential!

A few times a week our other machine C-FIZA picks up dialysis patients in the morning from the small island just 8 miles east of here called Vieques and then returns them home in the evening. Our mission today was to take over around 16 passengers from FEMA to see how the process was all working and talk to the locals on each island on how things could improve and needed around 2.5 hours at each location. Aaron had been to each location a few times before, but this was my first opportunity to see a few new spots!

Stop number 1 was Culebra and upon approach I could tell I was going to like it already! It’s a sleepy little island that you definitely would want to come back to and feel right at home. It’s 17 miles east of the Puerto Rican mainland and the ferry flight over was stunning. Residents of the island are known as Culebrenses. With a population of 1,818, and total land area of 11.6 square miles, it’s Puerto Rico’s least populous municipality. We had a chance to rent a jeep and check out the island….yes…the entire island in less than 2 hours!!! If you are ever wanting a place to get away from it all and don’t want the hustle and bustle of tourists…this is your place!

Our second stop was Vieques, which measures about 21 miles long by 4 miles wide and has around 9300 people. The island’s name is a Spanish spelling of an American Indian word (likely Taino) said to mean “small island”. Vieques is best known internationally as the site of a series of protests against the U.S. Navy’s use of the island as a bombing range and testing ground, which led to the Navy’s departure in 2003. Today the former navy land is a national wildlife refuge. After a quick jeep trip into town and a quick bite to eat….we gathered up our passengers and headed back to Isla Grande Airport to get ready for the next days mission!

Most of our missions have been hauling food and water to these towns and outlying communities that have been cut off by road access for weeks. Once we receive the lat/long from FEMA, it’s always a crapshoot if we can get in there or not as she’s a big chopper that needs some room to land and obviously these places have been completely destroyed by the hurricane….so road clearing, tree cutting, and building us the perfect helipad has NOT been priority #1 which is completely understandable. So our tasking then becomes finding an area that is accessible for us to get in safely and sometimes that is a bit tricky with the load we have in the back, power lines that are strung across an area…that should not be there…but Maria decided differently….trees down or barely hanging there, loose tin from roofs, etc! Puerto Rico loves baseball….and so do I, so those baseball diamonds are easy to spot a mile away and are the perfect places to land….but most of the spots we need to get to aren’t in the town….so we have had to get creative. Also many times we will show up to our lat/long and they have it ready to go for us and quickly realize our chopper is way to big to fit in that tiny spot….so we circle for awhile trying to get as close as possible to the location needed. One of our most “creative” LZ’s (landing zones) was a riverbank and after talking to the home owner….not only was she so grateful as they have had nothing for weeks for delivery as their main access road was completely destroyed by a landslide during the hurricane, but what used to be a beautiful sandy beach in front of her home was now nothing more than a rocky, muddy riverbed. Most of these people have lost everything…yet they are so grateful and happy for a case of water and an box of MRE’s (meals ready to eat) which sadly the instructions are written in English not Spanish so they don’t even know how to prepare some of it….interesting that I can get something from Amazon in a box with 15 different languages on it….but we can’t figure out how to put multiple languages inside of the packaging of disaster packages….anyway….stay in my lane I guess!

Some days we don’t get as many missions as we would like as the need here is great but the chain of command usually out ranks the need if you catch my drift… so the “hurry up and wait” mode usually kicks in mid morning which allows for some great aviation watching at the Isla Grande Airport here in Puerto Rico! Usually our days consist of hauling water, food, supplies, dialysis patients to and from the airport, folks around the island surveying the damage, and other passengers to and from other islands…but sometimes we get to do what we do best and do some external loads with the old girl! On this day we hauled generators and supplies out to a remote location, which you get to see in the video. The bottom pictures are of a Gulfstream that cut the corner too early on the taxiway and caused a bit of a ruckus not only at the airport but I’d imagine with their company as they caused some damage to their landing gear getting pulled out of the dirt! At least it gave us all a new focus for a few hours. Enjoy!

It’s been 36 days since Irma hit Puerto Rico and 30 days since Maria destroyed this island and even though 95% of the island is still without power…you would never know it from the smiles and love of the Puerto Rican people.  The hotel that we are currently staying at has power, but immediately once you leave the premises and head to the airport to where the helicopter is parked, there are no traffic lights, it’s a free for all out there….but everyone just makes it work….pieces of debris still lay all over, metal tin peeled back from roofs, chain-linked fences laying down alongside the road which completely blocks one side of the road not allowing an entire lane to be used at all….but everyone just makes it work and you look up and you see new growth on the palms…new growth on the trees that had been ripped down to absolutely nothing….flowers once again making a presence and you realize that slowly but surely, little by little…things are starting to come back to life!

Sometimes you can say there are perks to the job…well, most days riding along in the chopper I would have to say it’s a “perk” but this was a definite one today! Unfortunately it was not under the best circumstances as we are here delivering food, water, and supplies…but our drop site happened to be at the Arecibo Observatory which was an amazing site from the air and an even more fascinating site once we landed.  The folks were so grateful to receive the supplies and once we had a chance to unload, we were able to take around 10 minutes or so and check out the Radio Telescope Observatory by a Engineer from the site.  From its construction in the 1960s until 2011, the Observatory was managed by Cornell University.  You may have seen James Bond at this location in the movie GoldenEye!

Yesterday we took passengers over to St. Thomas for FEMA and they needed around 4 hours on the ground. This was our first trip over to the Island since the hurricane and from a distance, the southwest corner of the Island looked pretty good compared to what we had been seeing on a daily basis from our food and water hauling missions in Puerto Rico. From 500 feet, they had vegetation and trees still standing, so we didn’t think they got hit nearly as bad until we were able to take an open air truck taxi to the northeast corner of the island and see a huge difference. As I mentioned earlier, the passengers needed around 4 hours, so instead of just hanging out at the chopper, we took advantage of being there and took the taxi (which took us around the entire Island for $2 bucks a person and it took around 1.5 hours with many, many stops) and we were able to see it all! Aaron and I have been here so many times on a cruise ship stop…..but obviously this place looks entirely different not having a single shop open for business or around 300 vendors set up waiting for cruise ship passengers. It was also so sad to see such destruction, but according to the locals, they fared way better than Puerto Rico due to their tougher building codes and regulations….so I’d imagine they will be up and running much sooner….and those cruise ships will be back before you know it bringing back lots of business! St. Thomas will be beautiful once again…..

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Many moons ago I started a blog when Aaron and I were down in Cabo living for 5 months as I found it easier for those to follow along with our journey and see what we were up to as sometimes my communication skills weren’t always up to par and I didn’t touch base with those we care about as often as I should. Since our time in Afghanistan, we have pretty much been keeping it on the DL (Davis~Lighter Down Low) so to speak as we got our Real Estate Licenses once we got back stateside and Aaron gave that a go for a few months….but quickly got back in the chopper scene. We both are currently still part of TK Luxury Group, http://www.TKLuxurygroup.com, should you be needing anything in the Phoenix Valley Real Estate area, we have you covered! I have taken a 2 week time out to come and join Aaron with the Hurricane Relief Efforts as he is down here with 3 helicopters providing food, water, medical supplies, hauling people, etc. under FEMA. This island has absolutely been decimated. I can’t begin to explain to you how badly this island looks from the air. I am so grateful that I have been given this chance to come down in person and help out in anyway possible. To be able to go to these outlying communities that have had NOTHING for 3 weeks or so since Hurricane Maria and deliver the first pallet of water or food is something that is indescribable. Helicopters are just cool to begin with (yes I am biased) but to be able to “do great things” with them…..well that’s just the icing on the cake….and for that…I am truly humbled.