June of '06 won't soon be forgotten in Northern Pennsylvania and 13 southern New York counties as wave after wave of powerful, slow-moving storms deluged the mountainous region for three days, causing the worst flooding seen in the Binghamton area since the 1930s.
Thousand Islands joined countless fire and rescue
teams from as far as Buffalo and New York City, state, federal, Red Cross and
military resources in
helping exhausted locals cope with the disaster, made worse by dozens of roads
and highways, bridges and culverts still under water or totally destroyed.
Four TIERS volunteers--Liza Orvis, EMT, Tom Cotter, CFR, Shella Gates, AEMT-CC, and Steve Abel, EMT left Thursday afternoon for the Broome County Emergency Operations Center. After a safety and operations briefing by John Morrissey, Senior Emergency Medical Care Representative from the Syracuse NYS Department of Health office, they were assigned to a 24-hour shift at Superior Ambulance in downtown Binghamton. Along with crews from Finger Lakes and Greece Volunteer ambulances, they ran city calls to help Superior crews--many of whom had been stranded or lost property to flood waters--get some rest.
Liza stayed on for another 24-hour shift at the
area's largest evacuation shelter, providing
triage, primary care
and referrals to Broome County residents forced from their homes. She was joined
by TIERS volunteers JP Middlestate,
EMT, Eric Hoffert, EMT, and Holly Hoffert, EMT-I.
By the time TIERS arrived, the situation in the city was largely under control, but many search-and-rescue and recovery missions were underway by boat, air, and land in more remote areas, including decontamination of residents and rescuers in contact with sewage-bearing flood waters from flooded septic and inoperative municipal sewage systems.
One of the largest emergency operations was the complete evacuation of Our Lady Of Lourdes hospital as flood waters began to fill the lowest level of the modern hospital just west of downtown. Lourdes pharmacy staff reported that water was knee-deep in their basement work area as all patients were removed to other hospitals and care facilities in the region.
As hospital staff made plans to replace
carpeting, furniture, walls and supplies ruined by the water, Superior Ambulance
paramedics are providing triage to a trickle of patients still walking in for
help at the now-closed emergency room. Lourdes' walk-in clinics and service
locations will stay open, but beds and emergency departments at the city's two
other hospitals, nursing homes and care facilities were overflowing.
