Summit First Aid SquadPress Clipping |
First Aid Squad Responds to Bound Brook (appeared in Summit Independent 9/29/99)
After emergency responders had finished dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd in Summit, the call came to assist our neighbors to the southwest in Bound Brook. The Summit First Aid Squad answered a request for mutual aid Saturday afternoon, sending an ambulance crew that would spend 14 hours in the flood zone. During most of that time, squad volunteers assisted the state Urban Search & Rescue team with house-to-house searches in areas that had been severely flooded. This was the first full deployment of New Jersey's recently created Urban Search & Rescue task force. The National Guard placed the town under martial law.
" A team working before our arrival found the bodies of 2 drowning victims. Ours was fortunate to find 2 survivors as well as several pets." said Alex Balish, one of the Summit Squad volunteers. According to Summit Crew Chief John Staunton, one man who was uninjured but simply reluctant to leave his home was taken to 1 of the 4 shelters set up in town. The second survivor, a 60-year old man was treated for a foot injury and transported to Somerset Medical Center.
Squad member Claudia Kilby commented that the devastation in Bound Brook made the storm damage in we saw Summit seem almost insignificant. Streets were littered with debris of all sizes including cars and vans that had been moved by the floodwaters. Mr. Balish who has disaster response experience as both a volunteer and a paid professional with the American Red Cross, commented that this was the worst flood he has seen in this part of the country. During their tour of duty in Bound Brook, the Summit crew observed a number of situations for which the community would obviously need help. These were reported to Mayor Walter Long who had asked for ideas on ways to help Bound Brook at Tuesday night's Common Council meeting.
The EMS response effort was initiated by the New Jersey State First Aid Council, an organization of volunteer ambulance squads to which the Summit First Aid Squad belongs. Several area first aid squads joined Summit in the response, including those from Berkeley Heights, Chatham, New Providence, Fanwood, Kenilworth, Roselle Park, Scotch Plains, Union (Callmen's) and Westfield. The overall response included a variety of agencies from the federal, state, county and local, level as well as private groups such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army. "Cooperation between the various organizations was excellent. That made everyone's job a lot less difficult", commented Mr. Staunton.
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