Four local Multi-Township EMS employees returned Friday from Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in New Jersey. Multi-Township EMS paramedics Gary Hicks and Scott Reese, and Multi-Township EMS advanced life support EMTs Ron Sellers and Keith Robbins, had been gone since Monday. The group took two ambulances to New Jersey and joined with other EMS divisions from Indiana to assist with emergency crews in evacuation of nursing homes and hospitals near the East Coast. The group left last Sunday with two ambulances. “We saw overwhelming brotherly love and appreciation as we cared for these individuals,” Hicks said. Hicks saw a lot of flooding in the Atlantic City area and devastation on the coast line. “Water was chest deep, and military vehicles were used to go through the water to get people to us so we could do medical assessments,” Hicks said. Hicks said the group left with two ambulances at 3 a.m. Sunday to go to New Jersey. They met up with other EMS units from the district in Rochester, Ind., initially and then convoyed to Indianapolis to join with other EMS units there. The group arrived in New Jersey Monday at 5 a.m. before Hurricane Sandy hit Monday afternoon. “We had just traveled 25 hours so we were allowed some rest time, but we then went out at 3 p.m. last Monday to get our initial assignments,” Hicks said. The Multi-Township group was on standby for potential injuries of police and fire personnel who were stranded on a barrier island from the hurricane. “As the storm moved in, the surge increased so much that it trapped the firefighters and police officers on the island,” Hicks said. The fast water rescue team was unable to make it to the island due to a high surge, so the rescue team waited until water levels lowered to reach the firefighters and police officers and brought them back. “There were no injuries and no one was hurt,” Hicks said. Hicks said there were 2,600 people on the island who refused to evacuate or couldn’t. The day after the storm passed, the hurricane victims were evacuated and the EMS staff cared for the victims. “We were making assesments to their needs and saw patients with hypothermia and medical issues because they were not able to take their medication,” Hicks said. Multi-Township EMS employees transported the hurricane victims to area hospitals or shelters as needed. On Thursday, Multi-Township EMS employees took over operations of the local volunteer EMS service. There were emergency personnel from New Jersey who had damage to their homes due to the hurricane. “There were six personnel from the EMS unit in New Jersey who had their homes destroyed from the hurricane and they continued to provide service for their community,” Hicks said. Multi-Township EMS employees took over operations in New Jersey on Thursday that allowed the New Jersey personnel to see their families. Multi-Township EMS personnel responded to 10 emergency runs. Hicks said as power was out, there were fires that Multi-Township EMS personnel responded to. They also responded to medical related conditions. “People who were in shelters who did not have medications were staring to see issues,” Hicks said. “We saw one person with a serious condition who had low blood pressure and we transported them to the hospital,” he continued. Multi-Township employees also took care of a storm victim who had stroke-like symptoms and took her to the hospital. Sellers also spoke about his experience. “In the hardest hit areas, hypothermia seemed to be the biggest issue and they were trapped and did not have any heat and were cold and hungry,” Sellers said. Sellers said he drove the ambulance to drop hurricane victims off at hospitals. Sellers said it was fulfilling to assist the hurricane victims. “I brought more back from it than I gave, and the level of appreciation that was shown was tremendous,” Sellers said.
