In modern times, the U.S. Coast Guard “brand” has become virtually synonymous with search and rescue. Indeed, over the course of an average day, the Coast Guard conducts 45 search and rescue cases, saves 10 lives, and saves over $1.2 million in property.

Rarely if ever were the services of the Coast Guard more valued and appreciated than one year ago, during and after Hurricane Harvey’s catastrophic touchdown in southeast Texas Aug. 25-29, 2017.

Cmdr. Jim Spitler, commanding officer at Coast Guard Air Station Houston located at Ellington Field, was very actively involved in dealing with Harvey’s devastation and recently sat down and remembered the Coast Guard’s valiant counterefforts against the storm of a year ago. Cmdr. Spitler, a 1997 Coast Guard Academy graduate with stints in Alaska, Miami, Mobile, Elizabeth City (North Carolina), and Corpus Christi, had only been leading the Air Station Houston for three months.

Then Harvey hit.

“I’m glad the Coast Guard and its federal and local partners were able to come together and provide much-needed service to the Houston area,” Cmdr. Spitler said. “We were able to rescue and transport some of the people here that needed help during the storm and post-storm.”

All told, during their response to Hurricane Harvey, Coast Guard staff rescued 11,022 people and 1,384 pets.

Cmdr. Spitler said the people with pressing needs ran an unforgettable gamut of urgent concerns: children with head trauma, people on dialysis, individuals suffering seizures, women in labor, heart attack victims, first responders who had been electrocuted…”

“One especially poignant call,” he said, “was one involving a baby on a ventilator and they had 45 minutes of battery left.”

“As soon as you put the phone down, it would ring again and every person on the other line thought they were about to die. We had only had 30 to 50 helicopters we were tasking out, including assistance from the Department of Defense.”

Cmdr. Spitler said that the crews who answered those phones would undoubtedly carry those conversations “for the rest of their lives. They had to make choices as to where they would send an available helicopter. Rising waters, desperate people in their attics…”

To exacerbate the tension and the frenzy, endless calls to 9-1-1 “crashed” the system and desperate residents turned to social media with their pleas for help and immediate assistance. Cmdr. Spitler said that his and his staff’s phones became unusable.

“When the 9-1-1 system failed, we didn’t see that coming,” he said. “Coast Guard numbers, among others, were put out, and we got so many calls and cries for help, via phones and even our Facebook pages. We literally received thousands of calls by the hour.”

Social media was used for the collective good - technology designed for one purpose provided a life-saving fit for another.

The commander said through Harvey and other experiences, they recognize that urban search and rescue over land is among their “unnamed responsibilities.”

And he counts it an honor to serve in that capacity.

“Our culture is to respond to those in need,” he said. “The public just expects us to be there and we are slowly transitioning into that space. The Coast Guard itself is decentralized when it comes to authority, so we have much more flexibility. Each commanding officer of their unit is able to send their aircraft whenever they want, wherever they want, so that is quite helpful to the cause.”

He noted the heroic efforts of so many individuals and so many organizations, and also spoke of his appreciation for staff at the William P. Hobby Airport Tower who made it to work and provided air traffic control for the Coast Guard aircraft. “They helped us coordinate and deconflict the traffic during the storm. This unit lost its radio - we didn’t have a radio to talk to aircraft, and the sector lost their radio. The ceilings were at 200 feet, the visibility was a half- to a quarter-mile.

“You’re trying to communicate tasking and sometimes other craft were a half-mile away from us and we didn’t know it and were trying to avoid a collision. They were very helpful in letting us know, and very heroic in somehow getting to the tower and doing their jobs.”

He said that Ellington’s resources were instrumental in the Coast Guard being equipped to do their work. “We coordinated fuel, ramp, and hangar space with Ellington,” he said. “They were very generous. They let us know – if you find what you need, take it and use it.”

The “normal” staffing for the Coast Guard at Ellington is about 75 people and three helicopters. At the height of Harvey, they had close to 600 Coast Guard staff (including from other units across the region and country) working in many cases 18-hours days and sleeping on makeshift bunks and cots at the Ellington facility.

Cmdr. Spitler said the experience was so unique and reinforced to him the inestimable value of partnerships in and with the community. “Federal, state and local partnerships in the community have to be strong,” he said. “We sign up for the Coast Guard because we want to be a part of a team that rescues people. Harvey was unique, and each storm brings its own unique challenges, but if such a horrific event should come around again, we will be even better equipped and better prepared to deal with it.”