COUNTYWIDE : Private Pilots Form Disaster Relief Corps

Spurred by the Loma Prieta earthquake two years ago, more than 100 private pilots with aircraft at John Wayne and Fullerton airports have created an Emergency Volunteer Air Corps to fly relief missions during disasters.

Orange County’s EVAC will become part of a nationwide network of such units, some of which were deployed after the Oct. 17, 1989, earthquake that shut down runways at San Francisco and Oakland international airports.

“If authorities need a general aviation aircraft to fly disaster workers or supplies somewhere, we would be called upon,” said Don Davidson, a Laguna Hills pilot and retired Abbott Laboratories’ executive, who has led the EVAC effort on behalf of the Orange County Airport Assn., the county’s largest pilots’ organization.

“The advantage is that our planes can land in much shorter spaces than jets can, so we can get into some areas that might be totally cut off from the rest of the world during an emergency,” Davidson explained.

For example, nearly 350,000 pounds of food and supplies were airlifted on 450 missions flown on more than 200 planes to the earthquake-stricken area of Watsonville and Santa Cruz following the 1989 temblor. The pilots came from airports with names such as Buchanan Field, Reid-Hillview Airport, and the Hamilton Army Airfield.

While such efforts were impressive, they were not well organized, Davidson said. Through letters mailed July 20 to people who rent aircraft parking spaces, Davidson said, he has signed up 81 pilots who operate 102 aircraft at John Wayne Airport. He said Tom Kramer of the Fullerton Airport Pilots Assn. has recruited another 45 pilots with 48 planes. There are about 8,000 pilots in Orange County.

“We’re really in good shape on this, but we’re really in our infancy,” Davidson said. “At the time of the earthquake, there really wasn’t anything that was organized. People flew a lot of missions on an ad-hoc basis. We really learned a lesson from that. We don’t want people flying around helter-skelter.”

The Board of Supervisors approved a plan to set up an EVAC unit more than a year ago, but it has taken this long to get organized, Davidson said.

In the event of a big quake in Orange County, EVAC pilots could expect to fly tents, blankets and medical supplies to areas that have enough space for a small plane or helicopter to land.

“Our assumption is that police and fire helicopters will be too busy during a disaster to provide all the kinds of assistance that would be needed,” Davidson said.

EVAC will be supervised by the Orange County Fire Department’s Emergency Management Division, which has offered a “tailor-made training program” for pilots,” Davidson said.

“I’m looking forward to that,” Davidson said.

Still, he said, “EVAC is one of those things I hope we never have to use.”