Open Arms, Open Hearts

Like a gawky adolescent, Ventura County is growing. Year by year it becomes more urban as office parks and housing developments crowd into orchards and canyons. Its population increases; its cultural offerings and economy become ever more sophisticated.

But in times of crisis, Ventura County is still a small town at heart.

It showed when hundreds of people canceled their Christmas plans in 1998 to help search for missing teenager Kali Manley.

It shows each time a local neighborhood is threatened by fire, flood or earthquake.

And it has showed, clear and strong, in countless ways since the heartbreaking crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 carried 88 people to their deaths in the Pacific off Port Hueneme.

Some responded by simply doing their jobs, displaying cool competence under extraordinary pressures. More than 100 county sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, search-and-rescue crew members, and deep-sea divers readied for duty within minutes. Rescue personnel worked round the clock and volunteered for special assignments. More than 300 Coast Guard and 800 Navy personnel helped search.

“I’ve constantly heard kudos from the national people, acknowledging the professionalism and thoroughness of the local sheriff and county Fire Department and the coroner,” Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) told The Times. “They have worked so well together. You can train all your life for a tragedy like this one, but until you’re faced with this grim work it’s beyond comprehension.”

Private citizens responded by offering whatever they had that might help. Fishermen and boat owners took to the water to help search. Hoteliers quickly organized to provide lodgings for rescue workers and victims’ devastated families.

And the list goes on and on.

* Drew Gottshall, a National Park Service maintenance worker who lives on Anacapa Island with his young daughter, saw the plane go down and called in the alarm.

* Although tired from a busy day of handling distress calls in heavy surf, Ventura Harbor Patrol Officers Bob Crane, Pat Hummer and Rick Hubbard loaded their 28-foot patrol boat with life vests, first aid and rescue gear and sped to the scene. They searched for more than 14 hours before being ordered back to shore.

* Lt. Joyce Goulas, head of port operations at the Port Hueneme Naval Construction Battalion Center, was on her way home from work when she got news of the crash. She turned around and spent the next several days coordinating the dozens of boats bringing in debris.

* Seabees from the base, masters of logistics in hot zones around the world, put their skills to use in their own watery backyard.

* Officials at United Blood Services scrambled to locate supplies of surplus blood, before hope of finding survivors had faded.

* A countywide organization of mental health care professionals offered grief counseling and support for anyone who felt the need.

* At Casa Pacifica, the county’s shelter for abused, abandoned and neglected children, young residents made sandwiches for the search workers and condolence cards for the families of the victims.

* A 92-year-old man, Mack Scuri, and his wife, Dorothy, offered free use of their 50-foot sportfishing boat Jeanne to carry the families of three victims to the site for a private memorial service.

* A skywriter sketched a cross and heart in the midday sky.

* Numerous houses of worship organized memorial services and offered special prayers for the lost and their loved ones.

* Players and fans at a Rio Mesa-Hueneme high school basketball game paused to observe a moment of silence for the crash victims.

* The Salvation Army set up camp to provide food for search workers and the news media and grief counseling for anyone in need.

* The beaches blossomed with impromptu shrines of flowers, candles, seashells, stuffed animals, balloons and hand-drawn messages of sympathy and grief.

* A candlelight vigil was held at the Port Hueneme pier.

* Port Hueneme resident Kimber Gunter, a childhood classmate of one crash victim, began raising money to erect a monument to stand in permanent memory of those who perished.

* About 50 teenagers from Hueneme Christian School walked five blocks to the beach to say a prayer and leave flowers.

* Barbara Garcia-Weed of Ventura erected a white cross bearing the flight number of the perished plane and the words “America Weeps,” and left symbolic offerings for the spirits of the missing.

And thousands of other Ventura County residents reached out in their own ways, large and small, to pay respects to the perished, to offer comfort to their loved ones.

How automatic it was to help these strangers who so easily could have been us. How natural to share sympathy, grief, support.

Looking out for one another as if each day might be our last is one measure of a community. May this thought remain with us as part of Ventura County’s homage to the people of Flight 261.