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Discovery was there

And were it any closer, one would need a life jacket. The Discovery Channel's gripping new series, SOS: Coast Guard Rescue, provides an exclusive view of Katrina rescues.

By CHASE SQUIRES
Published October 9, 2005

SOS: COAST GUARD RESCUE is an intense behind the scenes look at the men and women of the Coast Guard, and premieres with a special one-hour episode on Sunday, October 9, 10 PM (ET/PT) that includes never-before-seen footage of the Coast Guards heroic efforts during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (Courtesy of Discovery Channel). SOS: Coast Guard Rescue premieres tonight at 10 on Discovery, then moves to Tuesday nights at 10 starting this week. Grade: B+

The big networks and the cable news crews swooped in as New Orleans flooded after Hurricane Katrina, delivering a stream of video covering every imaginable shot, story and angle.

There didn't seem to be anything left.

But with planning and a whole lot of serendipity, the Discovery Channel scored something no one else got: the most close-up, you-are-there video of Coast Guard crews (focusing largely on teams stationed in Clearwater) as they rescued hundreds, plucking them from rooftops along the devastated Gulf Coast.

Discovery launches its 10-episode series SOS: Coast Guard Rescue tonight with the first of three hour-long looks at Hurricane Katrina rescues. TV crews with amazing access negotiated nearly a year ago rode along in Coast Guard helicopters as pilots hovered over flooded homes, dangling rescue swimmers from cables 150 feet in the air.

And then, the coverage gets really up-close, thanks to rescuers' helmet-mounted cameras.

When Clearwater rescue swimmer Jeremy Carroll swings through the window of a flooded house, viewers are there as a desperate family reaches out to embrace him. And as Carroll climbs into the attic looking for a way to get the family onto the roof, viewers will find themselves peering into the darkness for an ax or a crowbar or anything that might help.

Executive producer Julian Hobbs said his team spent months negotiating access with the Coast Guard and had already been aboard rescue choppers through the summer, earning the Guard's trust. The photographers were drawn from a pool of experts who specialize in high-risk work, and by the time Katrina hit, the rescue teams were comfortable with them.

"We left the (helicopter) internal communication system as the dominant way to tell the story, it's sort of stream of consciousness," Hobbs said. "We wanted to make the viewer feel like they were the fifth crewman."

The comfort level also shows through on interview segments.

"It's kind of changed how I look at life," Carroll tells the camera after viewing the wreckage of New Orleans. "You never know when it can be over, or you can lose everything that you have."

The tour was Carroll's first real action after more than three years of training.

"The environment we were put in for Katrina, as far as rescuing people off of rooftops and rescuing people out of windows, we really haven't ever trained to do that type of stuff," Carroll said. "What I was thinking about is: "I'm going to treat this patient, this victim, like it was my brother, my family member.' . . . I was going to do whatever it took."

In another segment, another Clearwater rescue swimmer, Matt Novellino, was lowered from the hovering chopper onto the porch of an apartment complex surrounded by flood water. Inside, he found women with babies lining a staircase, waiting for help.

"So I'm getting up in the (helicopter) door, looking down at this house full of people," Novellino said. "It was my first rescue. There was a lot of emotion. I was excited, I was happy that I was there . . . I think I said, "Thank God that I have an opportunity to do this,' and I said, you know, "Don't let me mess up.' . . . It was just gut- wrenching."

Hobbs said there was pressure from news outlets for Discovery to share the rescue footage earlier, but he said he was committed to the project and rushed the series to airing earlier than planned.

Later episodes in the series take viewers to rescues off the coast of Washington state, Massachusetts, Alaska, Clearwater's Sand Key and other areas, including Houston after Hurricane Rita.

Discovery only had raw rescue footage available for preview prior to the show's premiere, so it's hard to tell how the polished production - or the rest of the series when it moves past Katrina - will play out. But it looks like the network that developed the addictive Arctic crab-fishing series Deadliest Catch has done it again with SOS: Coast Guard Rescue.

Chase Squires can be reached at 727 893-8739 or squires@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 9, 2005, 01:08:18]