Over the last week I’ve been giving a lot of thought as to how I would relate my experiences after a tornado hit my city. I could give you all a play by play of where I was when everything happened, and what I did, but the truth is, my role in the response from a provider stand point was pretty small.
That isn’t to say that I didn’t do a lot, but for the first time in a long time, it was a “gloves off “situation for me. In the first 72 hours of the tornado response, which were arguably the most crucial, I touched only two patients, put two pair of gloves on, and never actually made it to an emergency room. That was by far the strangest part of the entire experience for me.
I’ve always enjoyed being in the field, and have always been a hands on provider, but this time around, that wasn’t my job. That was the responsibility of the great field employees I had working with me, and they did a hell of a job. Instead, I was running staging locations, organizing the next 48-72 hours of our response, and keeping track of where my people were. I had to do some of that “big picture” thinking that I talked about a few posts ago. It wasn’t as large as what would affect my service for the distant future that EMS managers have to tackle, but it was more than the “next 24 hours” thinking that I do in my day-to-day supervisory role, and a lot more than the call-to-call problem solving that I did in my years before I was promoted.
The success of our endeavors over those first four or five days was a team effort. I really feel that I am blessed with a great group of EMTs and paramedics that work for me, and I can’t say enough about them, and the job that they did. They made the “personnel management” part of my job very easy. Our schedule was overflowing with people willing to help, trucks were stocked, cleaned and ready to go, and whether people were on their 4th or 24th hour, they were pleasant and willing to do what it took to get the job done.
My colleagues on our command staff were excellent as well. Every necessary position stayed filled, and many of us jumped around from job to job to keep things fresh. One might get tired doing staging or being in the command post every day. I really feel that variety helped make things go more smoothly. So like I said, my role was a small one, but it was all of those little contributions that amounted into a great week. No one could have handled things better than we did.
In our service area, there was only one life lost. Not a single injury was reported by any EMS personnel in the field, and only a couple employees were affected by the storm. In the days following the tornado, things have mostly returned to normal. We’ve been lending assistance to some of the towns to the east of us who were looking for some help with their EMS response. A few towns were hit pretty hard, and it’s a good feeling to be able to help them out.
I had quite a stretch of work there. From “touch down” to my next day off, I put in about 110 hours. Now, I’m lucky enough to enjoy a six day break. The last couple of days were spent at Springfield College for my 10 year reunion. Some friends were up and were eager to hear stories, and see what the city looked like. They got a small taste of the damage on campus, which was grazed by the storm, blowing out many of the windows in one of the larger dorms, and tearing up some of the trees on the water front. The President of the college though had to share his sob story about how insurance won’t cover the trees the campus lost. It was hard to sympathize with him as we looked out the large bay windows of the student union and across the lake to a neighborhood that was completely devastated.
As my friends and I drove around some of the harder hit areas, I was still in awe of what I had experienced just a week before. Things are coming along slowly. Houses are boarded up, and demolition has started where it has been deemed necessary. It’s sad though; the city I’ve lived in for the last 14 years, almost half my life, is changed, and who knows when (or if) it will ever be back to how it was.
I love the realization you made as you transitioned from the day-to-day EMS supervisor to being supervisor for a major incident and actually having to use all of that NIMS training we all get. I would have loved to work for you in a scenario like this (well I’d love to work for you period, but that’s besides the point). I’m glad everything went well, it sounds like your division had a phenomenal success rate and I’m sure that’s in no small part due to your leadership. I can’t wait to talk to you more about this, but in the meantime just enjoy your time off man. Be safe.
I was seven thousand miles from home that day and I wanted so bad to be there helping. I think it’s in our blood… something, some DNA error or electro-magnetic misfiring that makes want to be in the middle of chaos. It fades sometimes, but it never leaves… trust me, it NEVER leaves. Thank you for your hard work Scott. I miss my old life and I miss the people I worked with, and I miss the work. I still keep my card, so anytime you ever need to fill a shift, say the word!
I don’t live in Springfield, I never have. But I’m local and I’ve worked in this city for almost 6 years. I felt overwhelming pride during those 4 days-and now in the weeks to come-at how much my peers are dedicated to our city. We’re a private service, so we don’t have a residency requirement; I think for most of us, these arent *our* homes and schools, but it felt like a personal loss because it is our city. In all honesty, I think a different group of people would have been complaining about the “holdovers” (I hesitate to call them that since we were all eagerly asking to stay longer to help out), or working to have an excuse to gawk. My coworkers are heart broken at the completely changed landscape of this city. So many people displaced. So many people that lost everything. I wouldn’t wish this type of disaster on any community, but having the opportunity to once again see what dedicated providers I work with has been priceless. I’ve heard about my coworkers that were in the area hit the hardest between the first and second touchdowns literally going door to door sheparding people into basements, helping older folks who couldn’t get around the debris, and in one instance physically carrying a disabled woman from her basement-less home to a neighbors to seek shelter. It gives me chills to think that these are people that I share a uniform with, people that I call peers. In the days that followed, we were all bleary, shellshocked, and completely awestruck by the devestation, yet people happily filled the extra shifts, pulled doubles and triples and left work to go help with the cleanup. A tornado might be the worst thing we ever see in our time here, hopefully it is, but getting to work during and after has been the most career-affirming opportunity I’ve had in my life.
Although I am late to the conversation I appreciate your efforts and reporting on what you experienced and learned during the process. Assignment loyalty is important in day to day operations and even more important during a major incident. Nice work!