12,000: Number of guardsmen deployed to assist in the search and rescue effort

Harvey will meander over the Gulf before making 2nd landfall near the Texas/Louisiana border

PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE — About 90 airmen with the 920th Rescue Wing have deployed to Texas for possible duty rescuing people trapped by Hurricane Harvey's widespread flooding.

In September 2005, the Patrick Air Force Base pararescue jumpers rescued 1,043 people — many from rooftops — across flood-stricken New Orleans in the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

That was more people than the combined number of "saves" in the elite combat rescue unit's 51-year history.

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“We're always ready for situations like this. We're a combat search-and-rescue wing, and our mission is to save lives," said Maj. Cathleen Snow, wing spokeswoman.

"Our airmen are highly specialized. They can perform rescues during combat situations, and they have life-saving skills. And the aircraft that we fly have special modifications to allow us to do any kind of rescue, in basically any kind of terrain," Snow said.

Under gray-shrouded skies and drizzling rain, an HH-60G Pave Hawk combat-search-and-rescue helicopter started taxiing away from Hangar 751 just before 4 p.m. Monday.

The helicopter lifted off from the end of a runway 10 minutes later, bound for Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base. Shortly afterward, the engine of a nearby HC-130P/N Hercules aerial refueling aircraft roared to life, and the jumbo-sized plane soon took flight to the south.

Earlier Monday, two HH-60G Pave Hawks and an HC-130P/N Hercules departed Patrick Air Force Base about 1:30 p.m.

The team includes pararescuemen, combat rescue officers and a survival evasion resistance escape specialist. Their skills include trauma medicine, swift-water rescue and nighttime hoist operations, which will allow the team to conduct 24-hour operations.

They will conduct training exercises while awaiting possible orders from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or Air Combat Command.

During the Katrina rescue mission, 920th Rescue Wing personnel staged at Jackson, Mississippi, fewer than 36 hours after the hurricane passed. On the second night, airmen helped rescue about 200 people trapped on a bridge, and some pararescue jumpers had to chop holes in roofs to reach hurricane victims.

Airmen also rescued dogs and cats from the floodwaters of New Orleans.

In October 2005, former 920th Rescue Wing Commander Col. Tim Tarchick wrote a column about the Katrina rescue mission for the wing newsletter.

"It has made all of us very grateful to have electricity, a home, clean sheets, food on our table, and especially to know where our children are at all times," Tarchick wrote of the experience.

"I will never forget the sight of a mother getting off the helicopter with her 2-month-old baby strapped to her chest, holding hands with her two young children as they walked to the collection point. I helped them carry what they had left ... three little suitcases," he wrote.

Contact Neale at 321-242-3638

or rneale@floridatoday.com.

Twitter: @RickNeale1