TAMPA Johnny Lane of Brandon flew on a private jet from Tampa to New Orleans on Saturday to help screen evacuees boarding the special commercial and military flights departing Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

That's the last contact with normal life that the 48-year old Transportation Security Administration manager at Tampa International Airport expects for the next 10 days -- at the least.

"We started with 24-hour shifts," Lane said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "We are sleeping in sleeping bags and cots in the airport customs area with the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division."

That's the easy part. Lane is one of 48 TSA volunteers from Tampa International, St. Petersburg-Clearwater International and Sarasota-Bradenton International airports who are screening evacuees as they leave their hometown, perhaps for the last time.

"I cannot believe many of them are going to return," Lane said.

"There are displaced children. People are barefooted and crying. They are not sure of where they are going even though the military has let them know where the flights are headed just before they reach us screeners.

"It is just my observation, but I believe many of them will never be coming back."

Lane retired from the Army after 21 years of service that included being in the thick of combat action in Haiti.

"Haiti doesn't even touch this," Lane said. "You hear the evacuees talking. They are still exhausted, and they look like they need something to eat, although the Red Cross is handing out military meals."

The airlift began Friday. More than 30,000 evacuees are expected to fly from the New Orleans airport on more than a dozen airlines providing planes and crews.

The screeners were looking primarily for weapons and cigarette lighters. They also were taking alcohol away because authorities did not want people drinking on the relief evacuation flights.

Military personnel warned evacuees at the beginning of the line, Lane said, "but there still were some people with knives and guns when they got to us."

TSA spokesman Christopher White said one of the most telling points of the evacuees' hardships was that many still had wet socks and dirty clothing.

"Seeing the people come through, it was like they had gone through nine weeks of hell," Lane said.

Security procedures at Tampa International, where TSA has a staff of about 450 screeners, proceeded as usual without the volunteers, Airport Director Louis Miller said.

"TSA will be filling in the schedules, maybe with overtime, to keep things running smoothly in Tampa," he said.