Medical evacuation helicopters find safe landing on Rice campus

BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Rice News staff

Helping save lives of those off-campus as well as protecting those hunkered down here became a priority for Rice University during Hurricane Ike, as the Greenbriar parking lot became a temporary landing pad for medical evacuation helicopters.

	During Hurricane Ike, the Greenbriar parking lot became a temporary landing pad for medical evacuation helicopters. Photo by Jeff Fitlow

”Texas Search and Rescue contacted us Saturday about landing helicopters here because the pad at Memorial Hermann Medical Center was messed up during the storm,” said Bill Taylor, Rice’s chief of police. ”We knew the Greenbriar parking lot was fairly empty at the time, and it took about 30 seconds to get the approval to do that.”

Taylor said six cars were towed out of the bicycle track to keep them from being damaged by rotor wash as the big choppers landed. ”We got them out of the way so they could bring in about six helicopters at a time,” he said. ”They were running the operation here from Saturday afternoon through Monday midday or so, and because the search and rescue helicopters are somewhat bigger than the normal medevac helicopters, they didn’t want to risk landing at Hermann.” He said Texas Search and Rescue spray-painted the radio frequency for incoming helicopters to use inside the temporary landing zone.

Taylor said ambulances from all over the state were gathered in the lot as well, ferrying patients from Greenbriar to the Texas Medical Center.

”It was pretty sporadic, to be honest,” said Taylor. ”Nothing would come in for a while, then there would be one or two. But we were glad we were able to help.”