TASK FORCE 2 IN FRANKLIN, VA
another day in the life of our rescuers
On September 18th, 1999, OEMS Disaster Task Force 2 was alerted for deployment to Franklin, VA where hurricane Floyd had caused massive flooding in the community. The next day, TF-2 left Charlottesville with a crew of 15 members manning 3 ambulances, 1 squad truck, 1 equipment trailer & 2 quick response vehicles (QRV's). The initial tasking orders had us reporting to the staging area which was located at the local community college. Shown here, the members of TF-2 pose for a quick picture before our departure.
After we arrived we set up our base of operations (BoO) in the parking lot, relived TF-1 and TF-11 and immediately went to work. Downtown Franklin was mostly underwater and emergency services were exhausted after running non-stop for the previous 4 days. We wound up camping outside under tarps and ran rescue and EMS calls while the locals took a much-needed breather.
A picture of downtown Franklin. The orange booms were set in place by hazardous materials teams trying to capture 110,000 gallons of diesel fuel that covered the water along with various amounts of ammonia, phosphates and chlorine. Law enforcement officers were giving out $500 fines for anyone caught in the water. We wound up treating several people for 2nd degree burns from coming in contact with the polluted water.
Along with emergency calls for service, we had our share of routine stand-bys. This is the off load station where hazardous materials teams would bring ashore fuel and propane tanks floating on the river. After product identification, National Guard troops would load the containers onto large transport trucks and take the chemicals to a central collection station for disposal. Our personnel stood-by to perform emergency decontamination of anyone who came in contact with a haz mat.
This was a typical sight, an unmarked container of chlorine in someone's front yard. Haz mat teams searched for and identified containers and marked them for someone else to come along later to pick it up. We were very worried that some of these tanks would become vandalized and result in more major problems.
An exhausted Brett Henyon takes a nap while waiting for another call. Our team consisted mostly of people with heavy rescue and advanced life support training, which really came in handy at times. We ran calls for service night and day, ranging from medical and traumatic cardiac arrests to auto accidents to routine stand-bys at shelters for the homeless. The locals came out to care for us; some brought food while others stopped by to thank us. Local shop keepers open up their doors and gave us anything we needed free-of-charge. The local hotels were full of the homeless (many homes were washed away), but one cleared a room to allow us to shower. After 60 straight hours on duty, we were relieved by personnel from Norfolk Fire Department and sent home.
Even in these trying times, we never lost our sense of humor. TF-10 members must have thought we lost our minds when we went out and bought Tiki torches and plants and made up the front of Squad 134.
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