(September 1, 2008)

FULTON-- Nearly 100 offshore employees from Louisiana have taken refuge in the Coastal Bend to ride out Hurricane Gustav.

The company runs several offshore operations in the Louisiana. So when they knew Hurricane Gustav was headed for the mid-Gulf Coast, they decided to come to Aransas County.

Several helicopters from Air Logistics, an offshore oil drilling company in Louisiana, are now based at the Aransas County Airport. Workers say the choppers are used to take workers to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and were brought to the Coastal Bend site due to the Hurricane Gustav.

"While we were evacuating from Lousiana of course for the storm so they evacuated here," said Helen Thibodaux, who works for Air Logistics in Fulton. 

Air Logistics also brought about 80 employees, including helicopter pilots, to get away from the Category Two hurricane.

"We were a little bit nervous," said Erica Green, one of the evacuees. "Of course, we just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and get reposition settled into Rockport where we knew we were coming. Kind of lay low until Gustav made its track through Lousiana."

Green said she was watching coverage of Hurricane Gustav from her hotel room.

"A relief that some of that stress is off of our shoulders for the time being, but at the same time we have to keep our game face on because in a couple of days we're going to have to get into our helicopters fly 17 helicopters back to Creole, Louisana," Green said. 

Air Logistics will go out to check out damages at their operations in Lousiana.

"We'll bring our customers to assess their oil rigs all their other platforms and our bases in Louisiana," Thibodaux said. 

These helicopters will stay here until the middle of the week, then pilots are expected to fly the choppers back to Louisiana.

--Manuel De La Rosa, Area 3 News mdelarosa@kiiitv.com