TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

A Perfect Storm?

ADVERTISEMENT

By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: August 20, 2008

SEBRING - "This is the perfect storm, for us," Steve "Plunkett" Coltharp, interim director of Highlands County EMS, said as he stood under the bay roof that protected two ambulances from the rain at 7:15 a.m. Tuesday.

Coltharp had reported for work four hours early, at 3 a.m. instead of his normal starting time of 7 a.m.

He did that because, with predictions of sustained winds near 60 mph all day long, and gusts up to 75 mph plus four to eight inches of rain, he switched the EMS paramedics' shift change time from 7 a.m. back to 3 a.m.

"They were still predicting high winds at that time (2:30 a.m. Tuesday, when he left his home to drive in to work early)," Coltharp said. "I switched the shift change back four hours earlier because I didn't want our people driving to work or driving home from work in high winds."

But by 7:15 a.m., the National Hurricane Center confirmed that no hurricane was going to hit the county. Instead, residents would have to make it through what Coltharp called "a rain event, and a rain event that we've really needed.

"It's going to dump a lot of rain on central Florida, which we need, but there's no chance of storm damage," he added. Coltharp had just received the latest weather update, which predicted that winds during the day would generally blow at about 20 mph or less with gusts no higher than 35 to 40 mph.

"We've had thunderstorms this summer with higher winds," Coltharp said.

By noon, Coltharp and Jimmy Ward, a sheriff's deputy, former SWAT team member and also an EMS supervisor and paramedic, confirmed that Tropical Storm Fay not only didn't hurt people in Highlands County, but made Aug. 19 one of the safest days in years.

During the first nine hours of Tuesday's special storm shift for the eight EMS ambulances stationed throughout the county, not one vehicle crash had been reported, and there were almost no medical calls either.

At 1:20 p.m. Tuesday, nearly 10 1/2 hours into their Tropical Storm Fay shift, EMS ambulances responded to their first reported vehicle crash, on U.S. 98 about 11 miles east of U.S. 27, near Lorida.

The ambulances, though, turned around before getting to the crash scene because they learned there were no injuries from the accident.

Because most people were staying at home and off the roads due to the severe storm warnings, Ward said, the roads were safer than on a normal summer day. Also, he said, there were few trucks on the roads, and the few people who were driving were driving slower than normal in the at-times-heavy rain.

Medical calls were also way down, and Ward had a theory as to why that was when Fay brought an all-day rain but no dangerous winds.

"Normally, we're jumping with calls," Ward said about a normal day's EMS runs for both medical emergencies and traffic accidents.

What Fay did, in addition to keeping most people off work and at home, Ward said, was virtually eliminate the bogus medical calls to EMS. On a normal day, he explained, people sometimes call EMS for a ride to the hospital because they "aren't feeling well."

Once they get to the hospital, he said, they often have nothing wrong with them that required ambulance transportation to an emergency room.

"Today," Coltharp said, joining the conversation with Ward, "nobody is making those kinds of calls, because they don't want to go out in the rain."

At 8:30 a.m., Coltharp drove the EMS pickup truck to Woodlawn Elementary School in Sebring, where 33 people were staying in the cafeteria, converted into Sebring's main hurricane/storm shelter.

Several Red Cross volunteers were taking care of the people there, including Renee Bell, who was putting in her very first day as a Red Cross volunteer.

If Bell wanted to know anything about volunteering for the agency, all she had to do was ask Verdelle Medlon, who was sitting next to Bell at a lunchroom table. Medlon, a granddaughter of Sebring founder George Sebring, is in her 71st year of Red Cross volunteer work.

"I started when I was 14, teaching junior lifesaving," Medlon said.

Bell said she joined the Red Cross "because I love people, and I wanted to be able to help people."

"The shelter was opened at about six o'clock Monday evening," Bell said. She reported for duty at 7 a.m.Tuesday and was ready to help people at the shelter in any way they needed help.

Six children were at the shelter Tuesday morning along with 27 adults.

The biggest job of the children and adults staying at the shelter and the volunteers and county employees running the shelter was killing time as the sometimes heavy rains kept falling.

"Mostly," said Highlands County Budget Analyst Angie Bollinger, "we've been playing cards and coloring in the coloring books."

Bollinger reported for work at the shelter at 2 a.m. Tuesday. Asked if she was volunteering, Bollinger looked surprised at the question. .

"It's required duty," she said.

Every Highlands County employee has a specific work assignment for hurricanes or any other type of disaster or threat of disaster, Coltharp explained. Once a local emergency is declared, as the county commissioners did on Monday for Tuesday's storm day, each county employee goes to their designated emergency job.

Bollinger was assigned to work in the Sebring hurricane shelter.

"We have 27 adults and six children staying here now," Medlon said. "Last night, we had seven people who stayed over night and slept here."

Throughout the night, Medlon said, two Sebring police officers stayed at the shelter to make sure everybody was safe. Two off-duty paramedics also stayed at the shelter, in case anybody needed immediate emergency medical help.

"One of the policemen stayed here the whole night through, and the other one was stopping in all night long," Medlon said.

Normally, EMS is staffed with 16 paramedics, two for each ambulance crew, plus three supervisors, who are also paramedics, and four office employees for a total daily work crew of 23.

Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT