Insider Advantage

Thomas Casadevall and quick-thinking U.S. Geological Survey regional managers launched boats and rescue teams in New Orleans in the hours following Hurricane Katrina.

The events of late August and early September of 2005 are now painfully familiar: Hurricane Katrina's landfall on the Gulf Coast, the devastating winds and storm surge, the breached levees, the looting and violence and-most of all-the catastrophically slow and inadequate federal response. But amid all the bad news, there's one Katrina story you might not have heard.

Early in the morning after the hurricane hit Louisiana, Thomas Casadevall, the U.S. Geological Survey's central region director, received a phone call from Greg Smith and Charles Demas, who lead USGS centers in Lafayette and Baton Rouge, respectively. The state of Louisiana had put out a call for help to all government agencies. Much of New Orleans was flooded and thousands of people were trapped in attics and on rooftops.

"They needed small, flat boats that could be launched from portions of interstate highways that were flooded," Casadevall says. "They also needed people who were somewhat familiar with New Orleans." Smith and Demas called Casadevall, their supervisor, because they wanted to help with search-and-rescue operations. USGS happened to have the right kind of boats and licensed boat operators who could find their way around the city. "They're Louisiana natives," Casadevall says. "They know those waters better than anyone."

Search and rescue falls far outside the USGS mission to provide scientific information about the Earth. The safe choice for Casadevall would have been to tell the teams in Louisiana to stay put, at least until he could get official clearance from Washington. But that's not what he did. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, and the desire of the Louisiana scientists to respond to the desperate need so close by, he gave Smith and Demas the green light. "He wasn't awaiting word from headquarters," says Patrick Leahy, acting director of USGS. "He informed me, and I supported him."

From Aug. 31 to Sept. 5, about 25 USGS scientists worked from before dawn to after dark with an interagency team that helped save hundreds of people and brought food and water to many more. Some of the scientists had their own worries-relatives in New Orleans or damage to their homes-yet they stopped only when so much help had arrived from across the country that search-and-rescue logistics became overwhelming.

"At that time we still had our other missions to accomplish," says Casadevall. The scientists refocused on monitoring water levels, installing stream gauges and testing the water that had flooded New Orleans as it was pumped back into Lake Pontchartrain.

USGS also helped rescue workers overcome a major obstacle. "Because of the extent of the flooding, maps were useless," says Robert Doyle, USGS deputy director. "Street signs were underwater and house numbers were underwater." The USGS scientists were able to take the electronically recorded origination points of cell phone calls to 911 centers and translate them into latitude and longitude coordinates that helicopter pilots and boat drivers could plug into GPS systems. "I'm very proud of them," Leahy says. "They are in the best traditions of the Geological Survey."