A helping hand

Dave Lapham
Critic staff

Members of Lyndon Rescue helped with both Hurricane Ike and Gustav relief efforts.

Lyndon State College senior and EMTV for Lyndon rescue departed from Lyndonville in an ambulance with EMTI Jenn Williams, a recent Lyndon State Graduate, on August 27. Together they drove 26 hours until they arrived at Jacksonville Mississippi.
“Our director called and asked us if we could go help in Jacksonville Mississppi, I was a little stressed, I didn’t know what to expect,“ Ferris said.”

There was good reason for him to be stressed. Gustav formed out of a tropical storm and greatly strengthened. On August 26, the tropical storm grew to hurricane intensity.

In Gustav’s early stages meteorologists deemed it to be severe with a classification of a category 4. Luckily, Gustav weakened within a couple days and eventually downgraded to a category 2.

“Once we got there and realized that we were not going to be in a lot of danger we were alright,” Ferris said. “We were assigned to help with shelter cleanup, and wait for emergency calls.”

By the time Ferris and Williams got there housing was limited. “We slept in the ambulance, tents and other shelters provided to us,” Ferris said.“There was no power in a lot of places.”

EMTV’s Branden Bunnell and Dan Bigalow later flew by plane to meet Ferris and Williams in Mississippi.

“We left Lyndonville at 2 am to catch a 6 am flight from Manchester,” Bunnell said. “We didn’t arrive to Jacksonville until 11 pm. Once we got there we hung around for 2 days, helping out when needed. Dan and I were then activated for Ike. So we took the ambulance and drove 10 hours San Antonio.”

Hurricane Ike began as a tropical disturbance off the coast of Africa and toward the end of August the storm began to slowly develop. On September 4, Ike intensified and strengthened into a category 4 Hurricane. By the time it hit Texas, Ike’s storm surge was a category three and made landfall in Texas as a category 2.

“When we got to San Antonio there was some damage. The majority of it was flooding, roof damage, broken windows and a lot of debris.” Bunnell said..