Colonel Kenneth Baillie joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about efforts to help get ready for the impending weather.
Danny Hughes, proprietor of Two Friends Patio Restaurant and Pepe’s Cafe created a way to help with sandbags.
Colonel Baillie said, “He invented a machine that attaches to the back of a dump truck. The dump truck feeds in the machine, and the machine fills sandbags in optimum conditions. They can do between 800 and 1,000 bags an hour. So it’s really an innovative design. I’ve been involved in all hazards response and hurricane response for over 30 years, and I’ve not seen anything like it in my entire time. I must note that that I’m retired, which is why I can do this. I retired from the army.”
Colonel Baillie has a lot of experience in the military.
He said, “38 years ago, I started off as a private filling sandbags, and then I worked my way up, got a commission, and I ended up, one of my positions was as a joint director in Louisiana. What that means is the Army Guard and Air Force Guard in Louisiana plays a large role in disaster preparation, mitigation, recovery. My office was at the the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness in Baton Rouge, liaisoning directly with the governor’s staff to make sure that the parishes, as you know, we don’t have counties, had everything they need to to prepare for, respond to and recover from storms. So I’ve seen probably 24, 25 major storms over my career, and numerous smaller ones.”
What is his most memorable moment in disaster relief?
Colonel Baillie said, “In Hurricane Katrina I was in the ninth ward at the state headquarters when the industrial canal levee broke and we watched the water come up from about six inches to about seven feet in about 10 minutes. I then swam to the levee, got on a Black Hawk helicopter and flew to the dome, where I stayed for about 10 and a half days. I was there for the the initial receipt of of folks from Orleans Parish, and then helped organize the evacuation by bus and helicopter from the dome. So, it was intense. It was very intense.”
How did that compare to Hurricane Helene?
Colonel Baillie said, “It’s hard to say, down in South Louisiana, we’re kind of used to hurricanes, high water, winds and storms, kind of the same as you are here in Key West and southern Florida. I’m not sure the Carolinas were ready for something of the intensity and effect that they experienced. It’s hard to say. We have a pretty developed levee system in South Louisiana, a pretty developed system of locks to keep water from coming in from the Gulf side. So I’m not sure comparison is possible. Certainly we live differently than they do. They tend to have water come in, kind of stay for a bit and then kind of wash out. In South Louisiana, because we’re so far below sea level, it tends to rest there, as in a bowl and has to be pumped out.”
Colonel Baillie also teaches.
He said, “I teach intelligence operations and defense support to civilian authorities for Tulane. They’re a wonderful organization. They approached me about three years ago and asked me if I’d be interested in sharing some of my experience and kind of passing knowledge on to the next generation. I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s a privilege to teach those young folks, and it’s really satisfying to see them kind of move forward with some of the knowledge that I’ve been able to give them and believe me, it’s not all me. They’re very bright, they’re very motivated, they’re going to do well in their careers, every one of them.”
The sandbag operation is suspended as of now.
Colonel Baillie said, “The conditions for gathering more sand, the truck’s entirely empty. We did about 1,000 bags yesterday, and unfortunately, conditions for coming back out and setting back up probably aren’t conducive for distribution this morning. The reason I say that is I’m actually sitting in my automobile at Indigenous Park now. Winds are coming in off the water. I’m no meteorologist, but I gage about 25, 30 miles an hour. My fear is that I’m already watching white caps kind of break over and if we start to get a surge, I’ll need to get the truck rigged up to move out quickly, and that operation takes a little while, so I’m awaiting instructions now, but as of about 20 minutes ago, it doesn’t look as if we’re going to do distribution this morning.”
What is the apparatus that turns the sand into sandbags?
Colonel Baillie said, “It’s much less arduous with this machine, basically, the machine attaches to the back of a dump truck. The dump truck gets filled with sand, you tilt the bed of the truck, you fill the trough of the sandbag maker with with sand, there’s a switch that fills a sandbag in about three seconds, and then the person doing the filling hands the sandbag off, someone ties the sandbag and puts it in a pile, or puts into someone’s automobile or a pallet, or however it is they’re going to move the packs. I’ve not seen a system like this in all my years of of doing this kind of work, typically it’s a hand fill or a hopper fill sort of operation, which is arduous and labor intensive. You still have to move the sandbags, and you still have to fill the bags and kind of wrestle them, but it’s much, much easier. I watched a young lady yesterday work at the side of the hopper for about 35 minutes and even with very little training and never having used the machine at all, she probably did 300 bags by herself.”
What does Colonel Baillie think of today’s politics?
He said, “In terms of domestic politics, I can’t comment on at all. In terms of the readiness of our military, I can tell you that we’ve never had a better trained, better staged, better armed force. I’ve had the opportunity to work with young people from from all five services, Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and now Space Force, I guess six forces, but, no, we’ve never been more ready. Recruiting is very selective. Gone are the days where it was kind of like join the service or go to jail. These folks are motivated. They’re educated, they’re dedicated. They are the very best we have to offer. The way that it works is you come into the force, and it doesn’t matter which branch you join, you’re assimilated into their way of doing business, and and you become part of a team, and the sum of the parts is greater than the whole in almost every case. So my optimism is through the roof.”