Two Natchez men last week formed a navy. All it took was a 22-foot, center console boat, a stash of Ramen noodles, bottled water and a desire to help complete strangers.

Longtime friends Conn McCalip and Tim McCary packed up Monday and headed out to do a little God’s work, one boat ride at a time.

Moved by the horrible damage and flooding left in the wake of Hurricane Harvey’s wrath on Texas, McCalip said he decided to do something rather than just sit and watch.

“I worked offshore my whole damned life,” McCalip said. “And I know about hurricanes and areas that flood.

“On Saturday, I started looking at (the hurricane),” he said. “Sunday, I said, ‘I’ve got a boat, and I know how bad it’s going to be.”

He posted a message on Facebook alerting friends that he planned to leave Monday, headed to Texas to help.

McCary said he saw the post and called McCalip.

“I called him up and said, ‘Hey buddy, do you need a deck hand?’” McCary said.

The following day, the pair headed toward Houston.

They were turned around approximately 20 miles away from the city when they encountered a Texas highway patrolman at a road block who warned they could continue going at their own risk, but that larger trucks than theirs had been forced to turn around just ahead.

The pair backtracked a little and wound up getting off at the next interstate exit and found themselves in the small community of Fannett, Texas.

“We found a volunteer fire department, and we said, ‘We’re here from Mississippi, we’re here to help,’” McCary said. “Their jaws hit the floor when they found out we had a boat, as they were happy to see us.”

McCalip dubbed the pair the Natchez Navy, an homage to the Cajun Navy, a loosely organized group of volunteer sportsmen that rescued flooded out residents all over Southeast Texas and Southwest parts of Louisiana during the storm.

The duo had packed the boat and truck with supplies.

“We had a ton of water, cases of water, from the good folks from Natchez, toilet paper, baby diapers and baby formula,” McCary said.

The donated supplies were distributed at a local church.

The Labelle Fannett Volunteer Fire Department became their home for the next several days, until a local resident invited them into a spare room and offered them a hot shower.

McCalip and McCary ran rescue operations, guided by the local volunteer firefighters, who obviously knew the area well.

All and all, they estimated they rescued between 30 and 50 people and nearly as many pets.

“It’s so surreal,” McCary said. “You’re driving down what looks like a creek and you realize it’s a street.”

McCalip said he was amazed by the appreciation of the people they were helping.

“They were very, very grateful,” he said. “People were trying to pay us; we declined of course. We were there to help them.”

One of the personally tough things, McCalip said, was encountering people who didn’t want to leave their flooded houses, but had small children with them.

“I wasn’t about to leave without the kids,” he said. “Anybody under 15, I was going to drag them with us if I had to.”

Fortunately, he said, they were able to persuade the parents to evacuate.

“It’s funny what you remember, it’s the little things,” McCary said. “I saw a little girl jump off the back of a deuce-and-a-half (military truck) and she had a little goldfish in a bowl that she was carrying.

“All this water all around us and she was carrying this little fish. The look on her face was something.”

McCary said the experience was one he wouldn’t forget anytime soon.

“It’s amazing that people have such resolve,” he said. “People are definitely resilient. It was an honor to help them because there were some good people out there.”

The same could be said about the captain and deck hand of the Natchez Navy.
Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.