PHI STRONG

PHI STRONG

HURRICANE IDA RESPONSE AND RECOVERY

Thanks to our daily volunteers, we were able to distribute essential supplies and fuel for our impacted team members.

It’s been a few months since Hurricane Ida made landfall as a major and historical storm in southeastern Louisiana. Ida’s impact on the Gulf Coast will be felt for some time. Lives and livelihoods were disrupted, and our oil and gas community took a particularly strong hit. But above all, we’re grateful that our employees and their families are safe.

We’ve made tremendous and encouraging progress over the last couple months, developing alternate base operations, initiating ongoing recovery efforts to support our storm-affected colleagues and successfully transitioning normal operations back to our Houma facilities. Our rapid response to help our people and our customers would not have been possible without our effective disaster plans, well-rehearsed drills and the incredible support and outstanding work of our teams.

PHI’S HURRICANE EVACUATION PLAN

Our US Gulf Coast operations are no stranger to hurricanes. In fact, built into our Emergency Response Guide (ERG) is a detailed plan to get our people, customers and assets out of the path of danger. Our hurricane evacuation plan consists of five phases based on the severity of the threat of a potential storm: 0 – operations normal; I – alert; II – pre-evacuation; III – evacuation; and IV – remobilization.

During the Atlantic hurricane season, which lasts from June through November, our teams keep a close watch for potential hurricanes or tropical disturbances that could threaten our operations. Each season brings a level of uncertainty as we try to predict the number of active storms, their paths and the severity of each developing disturbance. Therefore, planning remains a year-round effort for our Americas teams, especially for our Gulf of Mexico operations. Each year, we review and, if necessary, revise our plans to incorporate lessons learned from previous storms and any new base-specific information or safety precautions.

Our teams begin their annual preparations well before June so that by the start of hurricane season, we have identified potential evacuation locations, secured sufficient transportation for our teams and equipment, planned long-term scheduled maintenance and much more. At the start of the season, teams at each base facility spend time testing backup generators, taking stock of emergency supplies and securing loose materials and equipment in preparation for the season ahead.

PHI aircraft were relocated from our eastern Gulf of Mexico bases to Galveston, Texas, where they remained safe through Hurricane Ida.

Once a system begins to develop and forecasts begin to take shape, we leverage our custom weather monitoring subscription and work closely with expert meteorologists to get real-time predictions on the development, path and intensity of the storm system.

Using predictive modeling and forecasting data from our partners and the National Hurricane Center, we issue regular advisories to our teams and customers notifying them of potential threats to our Gulf of Mexico operations and, if needed, determining when to issue evacuation orders. Our Program Directors and leaders stay in close contact with customers to communicate our plans and support their own offshore evacuation needs.

WEATHERING THE STORM

Ida began as Tropical Depression Nine on August 26, 2021, while south of the Cayman Islands. Just over six hours later, it was upgraded to Tropical Storm Ida where it continued to rapidly intensify from a Category 1 (sustained wind speeds of 74-95 mph/119-153 km/h) to a Category 4 (sustained wind speeds of 130-156 mph/209-251 km/h) storm in just 24 hours.

WEDNESDAY I AUGUST 25

Our teams worked closely with our customers to begin offshore evacuations in preparation for Hurricane Ida’s landfall. Beginning Wednesday, PHI had calls twice daily with meteorologists from our weather monitoring partner to discuss forecast tracks and potential impacts to our Gulf of Mexico operations and facilities. We began sending daily communications to our customers and employees, updating them on the status of PHI’s Hurricane Evacuation Plan and anticipated impacts.

FRIDAY I AUGUST 27

PHI placed our Gulf of Mexico facilities in Hurricane Evacuation Phase II – Pre-Evacuation and began relocating our aircraft, materials and crews from Houma and Boothville to our Galveston and Lafayette facilities—a 350-mile (536 kilometers) and six-hour trip. We notified our customers that flight operations and offshore evacuations would need to be complete by Saturday morning, for the safety of our people and passengers as outer rain bands began making their way across the region.

Our teams and their families started making evacuation arrangements, and those who chose to stay were bracing for the intensifying storm.

SATURDAY I AUGUST 28

Around 10:30 am, all customer offshore evacuation flights were complete. From August 25-28, we evacuated more than 2,000 passengers on board (POB) from offshore. At this time, our eastern Gulf of Mexico locations moved to Phase III – Evacuation, and by close of business, we had evacuated 54 aircraft and approximately 120 employees to our Galveston and Lafayette bases where they remained safe through the storm.

SUNDAY I AUGUST 29

Hurricane Ida made landfall as a high-end Category 4 storm on August 29 near Port Fourchon, Louisiana—about 60 miles (97 km) southeast of Houma. Maximum sustained winds were 150 mph (241 km/h), tying Ida with two other hurricanes for the strongest landfall on record in the state of Louisiana.

Final flights ahead of Hurricane Ida on Saturday, August 28—bands to the south east are outer bands from Ida.

MONDAY I AUGUST 30

Once it was safe to do so, our team conducted an initial flight and walkthrough assessments of our Houma and Boothville bases. Our Houma facility sustained considerable structural and water damage, and our Boothville facility sustained minor, superficial damage. Local utilities (water, power, natural gas) and infrastructure were heavily impacted with more than one million Louisiana residents and businesses without power, including our own facilities. Many roadways remained flooded and downed power lines and debris created additional hazards.

At this time, we also began deploying some of our aircraft, materials and crews to stand up alternate operational bases. Using the alternate locations that we identified as part of our annual hurricane evacuation plan, we established temporary operational bases while we worked toward reopening our Houma and Boothville facilities. We mobilized our Safety, Operations and Maintenance teams to conduct risk assessments of each new base location to ensure the proper controls were in place and that our high operational standards were met.

As we continued our post-hurricane assessments, our Human Resources team also continued outreach to all our employees in Houma and the surrounding areas to confirm their safety. To support our relief and recovery efforts, we established an Employee Relief Team to help collect and distribute supplies, collaborate with volunteers and assess how we can best help our impacted team members.

TUESDAY I AUGUST 31

On Tuesday, August 31—less than 48 hours after Hurricane Ida made landfall—we flew our first passenger flights in support of our customers’ disaster recovery needs.

We safely and successfully transitioned our operations from one main base location to three new bases across two states.

In preparation for the storm, PHI had fuel trucks available at the Lafayette base for employee vehicles and generators. Many gas stations in Louisiana were without fuel in the days leading up to and after Hurricane Ida. We provided diesel and gasoline at our Houma base facility daily for employee vehicles and home generators.

ROAD TO RECOVERY

Hurricane Ida impacted nearly every aspect of our business, but despite the challenges, our teams came together to care for each other and our customers. Thanks to the quick action and support of our teams, we safely and successfully transitioned our operations from one main base location to three new bases across two states. In addition, we initiated ongoing recovery efforts for 146 PHI employees and contractors who were directly impacted by the storm.

Through those efforts, we provided more than 9,000 gallons of fuel for home generators and vehicles; more than $12,000 worth of relief supplies (nonperishable food, toiletries, essential goods, cleaning supplies, etc.); 16 hotel accommodations; volunteers to support daily employee relief efforts; and financial assistance for 14 employees through the Yellow & Black Giving Back Foundation.

Throughout September and October, we developed and implemented a phased approach to safely return to normal operations from our Houma and Boothville facilities. As part of our repopulation plan, we evaluated the damages to our facilities and worked closely with insurance adjusters, engineers and construction crews to restore our facilities. Once we cleaned and removed debris, we conducted a thorough area and facility assessment to ensure essential services (hospitals, emergency response and firefighting services) and local infrastructure (gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants and roadways) were restored. Our teams secured temporary facilities to replace buildings that were destroyed, completed necessary repairs to restore damaged facilities and secured contracts with local hotels while we continue to repair and replace our damaged on-site employee housing.

On September 14, we reopened our Boothville base facility with capabilities equal to pre-hurricane levels, and on Friday, October 22, we began our initial move back to Houma with repopulation efforts continuing the following weekend.

In just over two months after Hurricane Ida, we successfully resumed all pre-hurricane flight operations in Houma on Monday, November 1.

PHI PROUD

Our response in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida would not have been possible without the unwavering support and dedication of our teams. Over the last few months, we delivered near-uninterrupted service, support and maintenance to our valued customers. Many of our employees took on different roles and additional responsibilities as we operated in unfamiliar locations, but despite these challenges, we continued to operate safely and successfully thanks to our teams and their commitment to our core values and our customers.

TO OUR TEAMS

We are extremely proud of everything we have accomplished over the last few months. You have showed unbelievable character and resolve in the face of adversity. Your unwavering commitment and dedication to each other and to our customers is a true reflection of what makes us a leader in the aviation industry. As always, our mission and core values drive our actions, and you have fully embodied these values and acted with an incredible sense of purpose, resourcefulness and dedication.

Thank you for your extraordinary efforts.