Faculty Member Part of Emergency-Relief Airlift to Louisiana

A Pennsylvania College of Technology faculty member helped deliver $146,000 worth of sorely needed medicine and supplies to the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast over the weekend.

William P. "Scott" Welch, a diesel equipment technology instructor who routinely flies twice-weekly missions for His Wings Aviation Ministry, was part of a delivery to LSU Hospital in Baton Rouge , La. The hospital, which he said normally houses 500 patients, now has 2,500 − including 32 women expected to deliver babies in the next several days − and was "completely out of drugs."

The supply run − details of which are available online − was a coordinated effort among Angel Flight East, CitiHope, Project Hope and Carilion Health Systems.

Paul Moore of CitiHope brought 500 to 600 pounds of supplies to Williamsport from his organization's warehouse in New York state, and hundreds more pounds were added during subsequent stops in Winchester , Va. , and Roanoke, Va.

"The plane was so full, we had to have a crawl tunnel" to get inside, Welch said. "We couldn't have gotten one more hypodermic needle in there. Someone had to close the door from the outside."

Due to the nature of the cargo − "we weren't just flying aspirin," he noted − the group was greeted at Baton Rouge by a police escort. Not to mention an appreciative medical staff, who Welch said put the supplies to work "the second we got there."

The pilot said he remained for about 24 hours through the required documentation period, in which all of the items had to be catalogued prior to their distribution. He said he plans to make two similar trips later this week.