SafetyPro2
Forum Safety Officer
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Just wanted to let you all know that I and the rest of my DMAT team (CA-1) got back from Mississippi last night.
As you know, we got our Alert and subsequent Activation orders on Sunday, August 28. Most of the team (including myself) flew out of LAX for Memphis on Monday morning and we were actually in the air when the hurricane made landfall. 6 of our team members drove our three trucks with our supply cache.
We got to Memphis and spent the night there along with a dozen or so other DMATs from around the country. Tuesday morning, we headed out in a 40-50 vehicle convoy from Memphis to Camp Shelby, a National Guard base just south of Hattiesburg, MS. The road crews were literally clearing the fallen trees in front of us at some points. We staged at Shelby, which was itself without power or potable water. Assessment teams were out finding areas for DMATs to go into, and some teams got sent out right away. We were initially ordered out with another team on Wednesday to go to a hospital in Port St. Louis, but our team was then held back and we ended up waiting until our trucks arrived last Wednesday. Thursday morning, we got our final orders and were sent to the Biloxi High School, which was functioning as both a shelter and hospital.
We arrived in Biloxi and tied in with AMR and the Mississippi State Guard (not National Guard) who were running the medical side of the shelter (the Red Cross ran the general population shelter). When we arrived, we had several hundred patients in the halls of the school. There was only minimal power from the school's emergency generator and other portable generators. Three USCG helicopters came in within the first couple of hours we were there to airlift out the most critical patients. We spent the next week and a half treating those paitents that we could and stabilizing and transferring the rest out to other facilities.
The Navy sent in a large number of personnel from the USS Bataan, the USS Whidbey Island and the USS Shreveport to help with both the medical side and the food services for the shelter. I think the Navy food was one of the biggest morale boosters for everyone in the shelter. We also had medical personnel from around the country arrive, including quite a few from the Mississippi Department of Public Health. We even had a group of Royal Dutch Navy personnel come through two days, but they were assigned to other areas.
By this past Sunday, we were down to only a handfull of patients (mostly long-term care patients), and we handed off the medical side of the shelter to a smaller DMAT strike team. We drove back to Memphis on Sunday and flew home yesterday.
It was definitely quite an experience and I'm sure I'll have more to share in the coming days (including some pictures when I get those), but for now, just wanted to give you all a brief update and let you know that I'm back home safe and settling back into normal life.
Chris
As you know, we got our Alert and subsequent Activation orders on Sunday, August 28. Most of the team (including myself) flew out of LAX for Memphis on Monday morning and we were actually in the air when the hurricane made landfall. 6 of our team members drove our three trucks with our supply cache.
We got to Memphis and spent the night there along with a dozen or so other DMATs from around the country. Tuesday morning, we headed out in a 40-50 vehicle convoy from Memphis to Camp Shelby, a National Guard base just south of Hattiesburg, MS. The road crews were literally clearing the fallen trees in front of us at some points. We staged at Shelby, which was itself without power or potable water. Assessment teams were out finding areas for DMATs to go into, and some teams got sent out right away. We were initially ordered out with another team on Wednesday to go to a hospital in Port St. Louis, but our team was then held back and we ended up waiting until our trucks arrived last Wednesday. Thursday morning, we got our final orders and were sent to the Biloxi High School, which was functioning as both a shelter and hospital.
We arrived in Biloxi and tied in with AMR and the Mississippi State Guard (not National Guard) who were running the medical side of the shelter (the Red Cross ran the general population shelter). When we arrived, we had several hundred patients in the halls of the school. There was only minimal power from the school's emergency generator and other portable generators. Three USCG helicopters came in within the first couple of hours we were there to airlift out the most critical patients. We spent the next week and a half treating those paitents that we could and stabilizing and transferring the rest out to other facilities.
The Navy sent in a large number of personnel from the USS Bataan, the USS Whidbey Island and the USS Shreveport to help with both the medical side and the food services for the shelter. I think the Navy food was one of the biggest morale boosters for everyone in the shelter. We also had medical personnel from around the country arrive, including quite a few from the Mississippi Department of Public Health. We even had a group of Royal Dutch Navy personnel come through two days, but they were assigned to other areas.
By this past Sunday, we were down to only a handfull of patients (mostly long-term care patients), and we handed off the medical side of the shelter to a smaller DMAT strike team. We drove back to Memphis on Sunday and flew home yesterday.
It was definitely quite an experience and I'm sure I'll have more to share in the coming days (including some pictures when I get those), but for now, just wanted to give you all a brief update and let you know that I'm back home safe and settling back into normal life.
Chris