On January 5th, the residents of Fernley, Nevada awoke to a chilly surprise from the nearly freezing water pouring through their neighborhood and invading their homes. A canal that carries irrigation water suffered a ditch bank failure, and several hundred houses were caught in the path of the fast moving water, flooding many to a depth of several feet. As part of an immediate response by military assets, Navy helicopters rescued 18 people from the flooded area.

The water flooded several subdivisions with almost reaching 8 feet where most of the cars were completely submerged. Local emergency officials were calling for assistance. Eventually, the first of two HH-1N Huey helicopters was airborne and heading to the flooded area, 30 miles from the base. In command of the aircraft was Lt. Brent Hardgrave, a search and rescue (SAR) pilot with the Naval Air Station (NAS) Fallon “Longhorns”. Cmdr. Doug Russell, NAS Fallon executive officer was the second pilot, with two aviation ware fare systems operators rounding out the crew.

Several individuals were stranded by the rising waters, and evacuation efforts became the priority. The helicopter crew made multiple trips between the victim’s houses and a staging point where bus transportation was shuttling people to a temporary shelter set up in the local high school. Several families were able to climb into the aircraft from their flooded front lawns, a hover maneuver called a “one skid,” while two folks were hoisted to safety from the roof of their car.

In addition to the HH-1N Huey support, NAS Fallon’s Seabee detachment, Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 303 provided 140,000 empty sandbags. A second Huey was not needed in the flood zone, and instead provided communications support between the Navy and the civilian authorities. Other Navy efforts to help included providing 140,000 empty sandbags from NAS Fallon’s Seabee detachment, CBMU-303, and staging several Coast Guard C-130’s that arrived to deliver FEMA-supplied Meals-Ready-to-Eat and bottled water.