Duty Called.....they answered

Lavaca County may have escaped the brunt of Hurricane Beryl’s wrath when she made landfall, but as millions of Houstonians can attest, that little Category 1 Hurricane packed quite the wallop when it passed through Bayou City last week.

More than 2.5 million customers were left powerless in some of the earliest stages of the storm’s aftermath, during what turned out to be some of the sultriest days yet this summer.

Lavaca County first responders, answered when the call came and they gladly stepped forward, driving 90 or so miles north and east of here to do what they could to help. Help from Lavaca County came from two different professions.

The first, according to posts we discovered on social media early last week, came via local power line crews. Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative posted that about 16 or so volunteer linemen and several pieces of equipment were destined for Houston to help with the ongoing recovery efforts there.

“We’re proud of our GVEC linemen headed to Kirbyville in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl to help Jasper-Newton Electric Cooperative crews restore power to their members,” GVEC said in its July 9 post. “Please join us in wishing them well in their endeavors and praying for their safe return home once their work is done.”

According to base estimates from CenterPoint, the main electric provider in the Houston area who is working to coordinate the hundreds of linemen who descended on their city last week, Beryl left a nasty wake that left more than 2,100 utility poles damaged and more than 18,600 trees to be removed before power lines could be restrung and power restored, effectively impacting more than 75% of the utility’s distribution circuits.

The other group to leave families and lives behind for the great unknown were local EMS crews. Lavaca County sent along two ambulances and several crew members to assist in the recovery efforts.

With so many displaced by the storm and suffering through awful heat with no power, many of the ambulance crews around Houston hadn’t stopped running since they came to work on Sunday, and by the time Lavaca County arrived it was already Wednesday.

We begin with local EMS Chief Michael Furrh:

“I was notified on Tuesday evening (July 9) of a possible deployment through EMTF 8, so I quickly got on the phone with Chief (Tim) Decker and we put out the message together, looking for volunteers and calling at the same time.

“We needed to be able to staff 2 units as the deployment was asking for a total of 20 from our region. We were able to secure 4 employees by about 11 p.m. Tuesday night for a deployment leaving Wednesday around noon,” Furrh said.

So, with paramedics packing to go, those who were on shift did some quick preventative maintenance on the ambulances they were sending, and they tried to load them up with not only needed supplies for their work, but also plenty of ready to eat snacks, meals and drinks as well.

All the volunteers knew for certain that they were to plan on being gone for anywhere from 10-14 days, Furrh said.

“Since coming home to Lavaca County, my aim has been to “not build walls,” but rather, to look over them to help our surrounding services,” he said. “They tend to return the favor. So, being able to help our state is the next level, and our department is proud to serve with agencies across the state with the Emergency Medical Task Force to help our fellow Texans.”

Those making the trip were EMT Thomas Bornn, Paramedic Jose Alcazar, FTO Xavier Villareal and Paramedic Abbie Pulate.

We caught up with Alcazar in between duty stations in Houston, where he had just finished a several-day shift at the Manvel Fire Department.

He told us that despite having volunteered in the past for such deployments, this was actually the first time he was ever selected to go, in an EMS career that now dates back to 1990.

“The first thing we noticed coming in was how badly the area was damaged,” he said. “There were trees down everywhere, downed power lines, trees on houses... It was a real mess.”

Lavaca County crews quickly stepped up and stepped in which Alcazar said, “gave the exhausted Houston crews a chance to get home and rest a little, take a shower and put on some clean clothes, and just check on their own families. They had no idea if their families needed help or not,” Alcazar said.

They were appreciative to our local crews arriving, he said, and that appreciation showed in the warm hospitality they were offered.

“It’s like a true brotherhood, everywhere you go, you know,” Alcazar said. “And I really have to hand it to Chief Welch in Manvel. He sure made us feel welcome.”

“The hospitals have been completely inundated. That was one of the things we’ve already helped on some.”

Typically when an ambulance arrives, it will be met by the nurse, with whom you give a patient’s status and that nurse then accepts your patient, and the paramedic is basically free to go then and answer new calls. Because so many people were arriving at hospitals last week, though, paramedics were literally getting held up at the hospitals for hours just waiting to drop their patients off. There was no one to take them.

Not from that area, that’s where Lavaca County crews could help a lot, Alcazar said, by staying with those patients to care for them and the relay needed information to the charge nurse when they could finally accept them, which freed up those who were more familiar with the area to answer new calls and help others more quickly.

All in all, it’s been quite the experience, Alcazar said. In fact, he said he even learned a few new things, procedures and such he fully intends to bring back home and share. Still, while rather fulfilling from a work aspect, there were plenty of sacrifices made as well.

Alcazar’s children, both athletes, had their regional track meet happen in his absence, something he said they’d been planning together for some time. But at the same time, his family understands that what he does, helping others, is very important, too, he said.

On the bright side, both placed well enough at regionals that they’ll both be headed to the state championships, all several weeks from now, “So I should be able to make that, no problem,” he said.

Just hearing the updates from them has been a reward all its own for Chief Furrh.

“Personally, I cannot be prouder of our team in general and our deployed team especially,” he said. “We have great people, great equipment and amazing community support which helps them tremendously while being away from home for more than a week, / possibly two. The support through our social media has been tremendous and I just want to say “thank you” because I know they see all the encouraging words on our Facebook page as well. It’s humbling, truly.”

Not only that, but from a business standpoint, all that time spent on the road and helping out patients and crews in there in Houston, it’s not costing local taxpayers a cent. Rather, the state reimburses every penny, from fuel to salaries and even meals, the entire time they’re away.

“Were just happy we can do it,” he said.