Erin and I at Phyllis and Company are SO proud of our local men and women of the United States Coast Guard in their rescue efforts in TX!
  

USCG sends aircrews to Gulf
Helicopters carrying an extra swimmer

By DIANA MAZZELLA
Staff Writer

Friday, September 12, 2008

Air Station Elizabeth City sent four aircrews to the Gulf coast and had a fifth on standby late Friday as the Coast Guard began ramping up rescue efforts ahead of Hurricane Ike’s arrival in Texas.

Lt. Jonathan Miller, a Coast Guard spokesman, said each helicopter crew had an extra rescue swimmer aboard because the crews are expected to be working constantly after the storm makes landfall.

“One could be tasked to the max doing most of the work,” he said. “There’s a chance to give one a break and let the other one take over for a little while.”

The first crew, manning a C-130 airplane, departed Thursday night. Their mission was to ferry Federal Emergency Management Agency passengers and cargo to Alexandria, La.

On Friday, two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters flew to the Gulf coast area to assist with rescue operations after Ike makes landfall. The massive hurricane, packing winds above 100 mph and generating storm surges of 15 to 20 feet, was expected to make landfall on the Texas coast near Galveston around midnight Friday and slowly churn inland today.

Miller said if the weather in New Orleans was bad Friday, the aircrews were going to land in Mobile, Ala.

The first aircrew departed Friday morning and included two pilots, a flight mechanic and two rescue swimmers.The second aircrew left the air station in the afternoon and also included two pilots, a flight mechanic and two rescue swimmers.

Normally aircrews don’t venture out until the storm has completely passed, Miller said. However, because of the serious damage expected from Ike, the aircrews may fly out as early as 6 a.m. today

“They’re going to push their limits,” Miller said. “They’re probably going to go out when they can make it.”

The C-130 returned to Elizabeth City on Friday, but a second was dispatched on Friday and a third was on standby to respond within six hours — or within two hours if called after 6 a.m. today.

Miller said three C-130s and three Jayhawk helicopters remain at the base.

“It’s sufficient enough that if we had search and rescue cases in the area that we’d still be able to handle them,” he said.

The aircrews sent to assist with Ike relief efforts will be under command of the Eighth District of the Coast Guard until released.

Miller said a C-130 aircrew from Air Station Elizabeth City assisted during Hurricane Gustav, but helicopter crews were not dispatched to the Gulf region during that storm.

http://www.dailyadvance.com/news/uscg-sends-aircrews-to-gulf-128399.html

For the second straight year, Elizabeth City State University improved its standing in an annual ranking of the nation’s colleges and universities.

ECSU tied for 26th — with Brescia University in Owensboro, Ky. — for the best baccalaureate colleges in the South, according U.S. News and World Report’s 2008 edition of “America’s Best Colleges.”

That’s eight notches higher than where the magazine ranked ECSU in 2007, when it was tied for 34th place with Anderson University in South Carolina, and seven places higher than in 2006, when it was tied for 41st with Belhaven College and Blue Mountain College.

ECSU Chancellor Willie Gilchrist said he was pleased with the university’s latest ranking in the magazine’s report.

“We credit faculty and staff for working so diligently to prepare our students for the future,” he said. “We are offering more of the programs that will place our students in demand — programs like aviation science, biology, education, math and computer science.”

Gilchrist said many of the students graduating from those departments are entering graduate programs where they are excelling. Others have completed graduate school and gone on to rewarding careers, he said.

U.S. News and World Report, which conducts the annual review of the nation’s 1,400 colleges and universities, considers baccalaureate colleges those that focus primarily on undergraduate education and grant fewer than 50 percent of their degrees in the liberal arts. The magazine ranks 319 baccalaureate colleges, dividing them into four regions: North, South, Midwest, and West.

The other three categories include national universities, liberal arts colleges and universities-master’s. Harvard was this year’s top school in the national university category; Amherst and Williams colleges tied for first among liberal arts colleges; and Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. was the top school in the university-master’s category in the South.

To compile the rankings, the magazine compiles data in seven broad areas and then compares them to each college or university in each category. The seven areas of comparison are: peer assessment; graduation and retention rate; faculty resources, including class size; student selectivity, including average admission test scores of incoming students; financial resources; alumni giving. For national universities and liberal arts colleges, the rankings also compare graduation rates.

In its latest rankings, U.S. News and World Report ranks ECSU the third best public baccalaureate college or university in the South. For the fourth consecutive year, ECSU trailed only the University of South Carolina-Aiken, which finished 23rd, and Winston-Salem State University, which finished 24th, among public baccalaureate colleges.

For the second straight year, a private college, Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark., was ranked the top baccalaureate college in the South.

Among North Carolina colleges and universities, ECSU finished ahead of Methodist University, Belmont Abbey College, Mars Hill College and Montreat College in the 50 baccalaureate colleges ranked in the South. Colleges rated ahead of ECSU among ranked schools included High Point College, Lenoir-Ryhne College and Catawba College.

Gilchrist said he feels the ratings are important for both prospective students and parents trying to determine which college or university offers the best value.

“The scores from America’s Best Colleges are significant,” he said. “We realize that parents and prospective students consult the report in their search for a university where the students will enroll.”

According to U.S. News and World Report, in-state tuition at ECSU for 2007-08 was $3,354, while out-of-state rates were $12,235. ECSU’s fall 2007 acceptance rate was 71 percent, the magazine reported.

“ECSU continues to offer one of the most affordable packages in the state of North Carolina,” Gilchrist said. “We want parents and students to remember a great college education is within reach at ECSU.”

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