Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Jet Ski rescuer honored for riding Katrina victims to safety

Jet ski rescuer honored for riding Katrina victims to safety
By Jane Northrop
Article Launched: 10/03/2007 01:21:18 PM PDT

When Hurricane Katrina plunged New Orleans into deep water, the streets started to look like familiar terrain to Frank Quirarte and his team of jet ski rescuers.

When the Mavericks surf contest is on, Quirarte sits on a jet ski and positions himself close enough to the big waves to be an effective rescuer for any of the athletes who need his assistance.

And often they do, he said.

Mavericks founder Jeff Clark and Quirarte mobilized the jet ski team about a decade ago after the 1994 death of Mark Foo specifically to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again and they have met that goal.

“We rescue people at Mavericks all the time. That’s the idea – not to let it get to the critical point. We developed a technique to get them before they drown. There are only a handful of us doing it around the world. We feel pretty proud of that,” he said.

Unfortunately, Quirarte is often too close to keep himself safe from the big waves.

“One time we all hit bottom. It’s bound to happen. It feels like you are about to pay your dues. It reminds you of what can happen,” he said.

In between surf competitions, Quirarte shares his boat rescue techniques with fire departments and branches of the armed services all over the country so these teams could respond if a major water disaster hits, no matter what their location. The coordinators setting up the FEMA operation after Katrina remembered Quirarte from one of those training sessions and invited his team of four jet ski rescuers to join the FEMA camp.

“We were the only private rescue company allowed in the FEMA camp,” Quirarte said.

Quirarte, 44, born and raised in Pacifica, and Bill Sharp of Huntington Beach, another rescue boat operator who got his start at Mavericks, received from Pacifica City Council Sept. 24 a proclamation of appreciation for their work rescuing hundreds of people after Katrina.

“Everyone was watching the aftermath of the hurricane. My roommate said, ‘you guys could go,’ but we didn’t know how. Everyone called in who they knew; the next morning we were on an airplane,” Quirarte said.

Corporate sponsors jumped at the chance to provide assistance. Billabong Surf Company paid for their airfare to Houston, Ford Motor Company sent a couple of trucks to Houston so they could drive to Baton Rouge where Yamaha Watercraft had sent 12 of their wave runners, or jet skis.

They spent a week in New Orleans in extreme heat, about 110 degrees and 100 percent humidity, pulling people out of buildings and off roofs. Some of the attics afforded only three to four feet of crawl space. People had been holed up there for several days.

“You had to check attics for people. We were yelling out and asking people to bang on a pan if they could. If you heard a noise, you had to climb in a house and you didn’t know what was happening inside. By the end of the week we had pulled out hundreds of people. People were holed up in there and didn’t realize the scope of the flooding. They were three to four miles in and had no information. They were running out of food and water. People needed medication. People were stuck – young and old – it was crazy. A lot of people made the decision to stay, but the water didn’t recede. It was unbelievable more people didn’t die. Before we got there we thought the big threat was going to be the looters, but that was not the case. Everyone we came across was so grateful,” Quirarte said.

A big threat to them was the contaminated, blackened water they had to travel through to reach their victims and carry them to safety. They wore fishing waders over their light wetsuits to protect themselves from the contaminants in the water.

“We developed techniques to keep ourselves out of danger. We didn’t know what was in the water. The water was black with all the household chemicals plus the industrial area nearby,” he said.

They carried people to a sled on the jetski for transport or to an inflatable rubber rescue boat that allowed them to tow up to 100 people. They commandeered boats they discovered at people’s houses and took them to wherever they were called.

They developed a hand signal communication system, since the various branches of the service didn’t all use the same radio frequency. A helicopter would fly over the houses and guide them over to the roofs. Residents had punched holes in their roofs hoping someone would see them and come to rescue them.

“The jetski was very maneuverable, but the other boats would hit submerged cars and fire hydrants. We had to rescue the rescuers quite a lot. Everyone worked together,” he said.

The electricity had turned itself off, but the gas lines were still active, creating another hazard for the rescuers.

“If you came to an apartment complex, you could see the natural gas and it would set on fire. We were always hoping the wake from the jetski would put it out and sometimes it did. That was the scariest,” he said.

It was emotionally difficult to see people who had already died by the time the rescuers got there, Quirarte said.

After a week, the water receded and the jetskis and boats became useless. It was time for the Army to take over with their big trucks. Quirarte and his team returned home.

“We went back there a year later to check on what happened. Everything was still a big mess. Nothing had changed much. There were only a few groups building houses. I think the pace has picked up now,” he said.

Quirarte has spent his whole life on the water. In Pacifica, he surfed every chance he got. His family spent their summers in a houseboat on a lake. His brother had a jet ski he tried out and he took to it right away. After enjoying the water so much as a recreational activity, he was a natural for a career in the water.

“When it was time to develop this team, I already had the experience. I was comfortable in the big wave scene,” he said. Quirarte has a few landlubber hobbies, as well. He enjoys a little dirt biking and spending time with his son, who will be 4 next month.

Quirarte served in the Air Force for eight years in Desert Storm and then worked as an aircraft mechanic, but he was itching to break into the surf industry.

As a sideline business, he learned to shoot photos from the jet ski. He has been sought after to perform rescues for television and the movies.

“We were invited everywhere. We learned to use the jet skis as camera boats. There were not very many people doing this. There was no one else to come to. You develop a technique for each situation and then you perfect it,” he said.