Joplin relief flights leave from Wheeling

Wheeling's Chicago Executive Airport has been the primary base of operations for local volunteer flights bringing needed emergency supplies to tornado-ravaged Joplin, Mo. for the past week.

And the emphasis has been on “needed.”

Latex medical exam gloves rose to the top of the list of needs delivered Friday by pilot Rene Rivero of Skokie, as they did for Bob McKenzie of Wheeling six days earlier.

“I called. They really need this stuff,” Rivero said as he and others loaded boxes Friday morning aboard his twin-engine Cessna 310.

“The hospital was hit pretty hard down there,” added Marc Epner of Vernon Hills, a member of the Leading Edge Flying Club at Chicago Executive Airport. The group is contributing toward the fuel costs of Rivero's flight.

The list of wants in Joplin has changed a few times since the May 22 tornado, with water and most clothing items being among the first needs fulfilled.

The major challenge today is ensuring that the speed afforded by air travel is being spent exclusively on what is most needed at any given moment, said Marianne Stevenson, president of the national organization Aerobridge.

Aerobridge was formed in response to Hurricane Katrina by pilots across the country who volunteered their time and efforts to flight assistance. Since then, Aerobridge has helped coordinate relief flights for international disasters like the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, as well more regional crises such as the Joplin tornado.

No matter the scale of the disaster, the reputation of general aviation is dependent on bringing only supplies that are needed and none that are redundant, Stevenson said.

Rivero said he's well aware of the phenomenon sometimes associated with disaster relief when good-hearted people overwhelm response networks with too much of what isn't needed at all.

Major Jim Griggs of the Palwaukee Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol at Chicago Executive Airport said that's already been the case in Joplin, with Federal Emergency Management Agency representatives reporting being overwhelmed by unsolicited supplies.

But Aerobridge volunteers are working hard on coordinating with their counterparts at Joplin Airport to insure that isn't their contribution to the crisis.

The donated items are coming from various sources and being stored preflight at Signature Flight Support at Chicago Executive Airport.

McKenzie, an aviation attorney as well as a private pilot, said the devastation he saw in Joplin from the air last weekend was startling.

“It's unbelievable how much of the town has been damaged,” he said.

The path of the storm was as clearly defined as if someone had used a Magic Marker to draw a line through a map of Joplin, McKenzie said.

Almost nothing was left standing along the line itself, with the damage quickly tapering off from its edges to where there was virtually no evidence of the storm at all.

Another arresting image was the remains of the big-box Home Depot store in town, McKenzie said. It looked like a giant had kicked over the building itself, he said, leaving the now outdoor aisles standing.