"We first got in on Tuesday night," a FEMA pilot, who identified himself only as "Randy," told Fox News Radio's Tony Snow this morning.

The 17th Street levee had begun to give way late in the evening Monday. Well into Tuesday, city officials were celebrating reports that the brunt of Hurricane Kartrina had missed the Big Easy.

By the time the scope of the impending tragedy became known, however, FEMA rescue operations were already well underway.

"We were one of two helicopters with night vision goggles," Snow's caller explained. "They wanted to start evacuating Tulane Hospital, which is right next to Charity [Hospital]."

Shortly thereafter, however, the mission ground to a halt. "We were being shot at by various snipers around the city," chopper pilot Randy said. "So the military, Eagles Nest 1, basically called all helicopters out about 10 o'clock that night."

Within hours, however, reinforcements had arrived.

"They sent in the Blackhawks first to survey all the rooftops with a gunship. Then they started flying all their C-130's in . . . the Chinooks went in and the Blackhawks went in to evacuate."

Asked about allegations that the federal response was "sluggish," the chopper pilot told Snow: "I think they're wrong. They had C-130s on the tarmac [in New Orleans] Wednesday morning, which came in sometime during the evening on Tuesday."

"They had the Chinooks on the tarmac Wednesday morning. They had the Blackhawks Wednesday morning. Everything was there."

If there was any delay at all, the FEMA pilot said, it was because operations planners needed time to coordinate the mission.

"If all of them just started doing their own thing, there would have been total chaos," he told Snow. "And [the flood victims] would have been a lot worse off than they are now."

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