Rick Balentine and Bill McEnteer were among the first firefighters to arrive in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. But they weren't alone for long.

Within two days of their arrival on Sept. 4, hundreds of firefighters from New York City, Illinois and elsewhere were on the scene, helping the New Orleans Fire Department cope with the storm's aftermath.

And despite reports of chaos, mismanagement and slow response by federal and state authorities, the two members of the Aspen Volunteer Fire Department said it appeared the New Orleans Fire Department was relatively well-organized and able to cope with the disaster from the start.

Still, Pitkin County's chief law enforcement official declared of the performance of federal relief organizations: "There's a total lack of the type of communication our teams are used to. I think there is a screaming need ... to get organized," said Sheriff Bob Braudis.

Balentine and McEnteer left Aspen less than a week after the hurricane slammed into the Gulf Coast, decimating New Orleans and a large swath of coastal towns and communities.

Balentine's wife is from New Orleans, and some of their friends and relatives were unaccounted for, prompting his request to drive an AVFD pickup to the region. By the time the pair arrived, Balentine's relatives and friends had been located, so he and McEnteer immediately went to the NOFD and offered to help.

"There was a lot of looting and shooting," Balentine said during a press conference Monday. "A very volatile situation."

In fact, as firefighters evacuated neighborhoods, they were escorted by a dozen or more heavily armed police and National Guard personnel.

Asked if their rescue team had ever been shot at, McEnteer responded, "Not that we know of." He added that the security forces protecting them had never opened fire. When asked if he wore a gun himself, Balentine would only say, "There were a lot of firearms around."

One of the local pair's first priorities was to help members of the fire department locate their family members and get them to safety so the firefighters could do their jobs without worrying.

The Aspen duo was staying with the firefighters in a makeshift camp at an abandoned nursing home in the Algiers neighborhood on the south side of the river, since the main fire station in central New Orleans had flooded.

As the days passed, the stench of the water, fouled by everything from toxic chemicals to decomposing flesh, became steadily worse, according to Balentine and McEnteer. Fighting fires from burst natural gas lines and suspected arson became the most urgent job in neighborhoods characterized by densely packed, tall houses that became easily engulfed.

Because fire hydrants were not functioning, firefighters used milk tankers to haul water and provide scant pressure to the hoses. Occasionally, a helicopter would drop a load of water, drenching the firefighters below who had no radio communication with the pilots.

Saying there were "signs of looting everywhere" and "not a lot of control the first couple of days," Balentine and McEnteer provided a moment of levity during the press conference with slides of "The Decadence Parade," an annual gay pride event that went on despite the chaos and destruction surrounding the parade route.

Balentine also showed a slide of a mule-drawn carriage, a familiar sight on the streets of old New Orleans in normal times, that had started providing transportation in areas that were not flooded. McEnteer said he saw the carriage giving a ride to a news crew with cameras at one point.

One problem, Balentine said, was the presence of "a lot of well-meaning people with trigger fingers," people who were clearly keyed up and ready to shoot first and ask questions later.

At one point, he watched a team of heavily armed police officers pull a man from a car and rough him up, along with another man who said he was a doctor and who had displayed a red cross on the car. One of the men was carrying a gun, but apparently was not a looter or lawbreaker and identified himself as a regular citizen trying to protect himself.

"They were good guys," McEnteer said with a shake of his head.

During the evacuation work, McEnteer said, "We met a couple of people who weren't going to leave their house," despite the dangers from polluted water, fires and gun-toting, angry lawbreakers.

Asked about the looting and such notorious incidents as shots being fired at rescue helicopters, McEnteer responded: "It's the poorest city in America, we've been told, [and] the have-nots are the ones left behind."

"The amount of human suffering down there is pretty overwhelming," said Balentine, adding that anybody that hasn't helped or donated ... "shame on them."

One particular need, noted McEnteer, is T-shirts, underwear and socks for emergency workers. Especially helpful would be donations of garments made of moisture-wicking material, like those worn by hikers, bikers and skiers, because of the intense heat and humidity in the region.

Both men said they would return to "the zone," as the area of devastation has become known, if asked. They said there is "a lot of concern" about the effects of the tension and stress on rescue workers, noting that two police officers had committed suicide in a camp adjacent to theirs.

Balentine said many of the rescue workers, despite being exhausted and emotionally drained by the work they were doing, had to be forced to take time off from the grim task of cleaning up after Katrina.

And while the fires began to wane after they had been in New Orleans a couple of days, the destruction was "much worse than what we saw on TV," McEnteer said.



John Colson's e-mail address is jcolson@aspentimes.com