Rescuers from area help out in Big Easy

Efforts will go on until every home has been searched.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- With military and medical helicopters continually in flight overhead, Jack Popadak and Tom Reed travel the flooded streets of New Orleans, searching for survivors.
"We rescued an 83-year-old man who had been living on saltine crackers and had nothing to drink for two days," Popadak said. "He said he didn't leave his house because he was waiting for his wife to call. His wife has been dead for 27 years."
Popadak, a paramedic, and Reed, an emergency medical technician, are stationed south of New Orleans in a tent city, working with the National Guard troops assigned to the New Orleans Convention Center area.
Popadak is president and chief paramedic of Action Ambulance, a family-owned emergency services company in Warren. Reed works for the company.
Wasn't coherent
The 83-year-old man rescued from his home was not lucid because of lack of food and water, Popadak said. After he drank two or three bottles of water and ate some apples, he became coherent.
"It was amazing to see how quickly he recovered," Popadak said. "It only took about 15 minutes. He knew what day it was, who the president is. That's when he told us about his wife."
Popadak said he has worked in emergency medical services for 31 years. He served during the blizzards of the late 1970s and in the aftermath of the 1985 tornado that hit the Mahoning Valley.
"With the tornado, we had a half-mile path of destruction for 30 miles," he said. "Here the path of destruction is 30 miles long and 30 miles wide. I can't describe it. It is just total and complete devastation."
Popadak and Reed volunteered individually to serve in New Orleans, then were mobilized last week by the American Ambulance Association. They left Sunday and began working Monday morning. They will stay for 30 days.
"We work from first light to dark," he said. "We're tired already. It's a lot of waiting. There are ambulance crews here from 37 states, and we wait our turn."
Checking addresses
Popadak said they are given a list of addresses to check. They pull up in front of a house and honk the horn. If no one answers, they are not allowed to go into the house. They are to assume the occupants evacuated or are dead. When people show themselves or leave the house, then they can help them.
"We're an ambulance and a bus service," he said. "We take people who need medical attention, but also people who just need out of the area."
People who are rescued from their homes are taken to the convention center and then either bused out of the city or taken to the basketball arena of Louisiana State University, which has become a hospital.
A hospital a few blocks from the convention center sits empty with windows blown out. There are signs on many of the buildings warning "Loot and We Shoot."
The dead
Popadak said he has not seen any mortuary crews at work nor seen any dead in the streets. One crew they replaced said they had seen a body floating and one that washed up under an underpass. He emphasized, however, that the focus of operations is still on rescuing survivors and will be for quite some time. Rescue efforts will continue until every home in the city has been searched.
Popadak wants Mahoning Valley residents to clearly get the message to stay home.
"Everyone in the United States wants to help, but don't come here unless it is in an official capacity," he said. "Baton Rouge is a good staging area, but it's about to go into a state of emergency because it's being overrun by evacuees. You can't get far into New Orleans -- there are checkpoints. It takes about nine minutes to get into the city and about three hours to get out. There are no motel rooms anywhere."
The rescuers have to stop their efforts after dark because the city is not safe after the sun goes down, he said. There are areas of the city that are dry, and others that are still under 3 or 4 feet of water.
In shock
Some evacuees are in shock and cannot comprehend the devastation. He said one young man they rescued had been living in his attic for eight days and couldn't understand that his return home will not happen for several months, if at all.
Popadak praised the efforts of the military personnel working the disaster. He said the convention center is secure.
"The military is doing a phenomenal job down here," he said. "I am truly impressed and humbled. We are a strong nation, and anyone worried about the strength of our military should quit worrying."
tullis@vindy.com