Task Force 1 rescues 130 in Texas flooding
Local Churches of Christ volunteers to clean up, rebuild.
Years of rescue and medical training proved invaluable for a Kettering-based disaster response team and a lifesaver for Houston-area residents cut off by flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey.
Ohio Task Force 1 evacuated more than 130 people — includ
ing 82 nursing home patients — Monday night and Tuesday, earning the appreciation of Texans.
As the wind whipped Ohio Task Force 1 members, they maneuvered rescue boats past submerged cars on Dairy Ashford Road in Houston to stranded residents, including about 50 in an apartment complex. “They’re good. They helped
me. They got me a boat across,” said Ronnie Jones, wiping the never-ending rain off his face. “My car’s flooded. They really did a lot for me.”
By mid-afternoon Tuesday, the team had ferried Jones, 34 other people and 15 animals across the stretch of water.
The day before, the team moved 82 patients from a nursing home to a casualty collection point so they could be transferred to other facilities and reunited with families.
“Everybody had been there since the storm started,” said Jack Reall, Ohio team leader. “A lot of them were bed-ridden ... A lot of them were not ambulatory... It took us quite a bit of time.”
With help from another unit from Nebraska, the teams traded boats for high-sitting box trucks for the evacuation that also included 25 staff members of the Heritage Park Nursing Home in Katy, Texas.
Reall said the big vehicles were the only option.
“No ambulances could get in,” he said. “If there was an emergency, there was no way to get them out.”
The box truck operation was more efficient than using boats, but like boats, the trucks still faced strong currents in the floodwaters, Reall said.
“It’s like having a river at flood stage going through downtown,” he said. “All of the rescuers are having to dodge a lot of debris and obstacles they just can’t see.”
Nearly 35 percent of Ohio Task Force 1 members in Texas to assist with search and rescue missions are from Miami Valley fire departments.
The Dayton Fire Department has the most locally on the task force with four members. Kettering, West Chester Twp. and Huber Heights fire departments have two members each in Texas.
Miami Valley help
Volunteers from the locally-based Churches of Christ Disaster Response Team are already on the way to Texas to help people clean up and rebuild in a region devastated by Hurricane Harvey.
More members of the group prepared to leave Tuesday morning bound for Portland, Texas, towing a disaster supply trailer filled with chainsaws, rakes, generators, tarps and other supplies.
“We go out and clean up the area and help people who don’t have insurance,” said Mark Cremeans, who is co-director of the church’s national team with his wife, Laura.
“We can help them rebuild — or at least help them as much as we can,” he said.
A shower trailer that also contains a clothes washer and dryer made it on the road Monday night.
The group departing from Tipp City will meet up in Texas with up to 500 church volunteers from across the country answering the call.
Cremeans said Portland, north across the bay from Corpus Christi, received more wind than rain damage from the Category 4 hurricane.
In the next days, the team will also be taking a 30-foot portable kitchen capable of feeding more than 4,000 meals a day and a semi trailer Cremeans called a “little Lowe’s” filled with tools for the volunteers to use during the rebuilding process.
Cremeans said the volunteers could be in Texas a year or more.
Red Cross mobilizes more
“The word of the week is unprecedented,” said Cory Paul, executive director of Dayton Chapter American Red Cross. “By looking at the data we are collecting, the amount and size and scope of the flooding ... translates to us knowing that there is a very large need.”
Paul said the number of southwest Ohio volunteers in the disaster zone has doubled to more than a dozen, with at least two more scheduled to leave in the coming days.
The volunteers on the ground in Texas are doing everything from helping set up shelters to computer networks to delivering bulk supplies to making meals, Paul said.
About two-thirds of current area Red Cross volunteers work in disaster cycle services, he said. Many more are calling to help, but Paul cautions that new volunteers must have training and local experience before being sent to assist on large natural disaster like Harvey.
Bottled water needed
The Dayton Foodbank and Sinclair Community College are teaming up to collect donations of cases of bottled water for Harvey victims. The cases will be collected at The Foodbank’s warehouse and at Sinclair’s downtown campus.
“For the people who are there, this is an emergency,” said Michelle Riley, Dayton Foodbank CEO.
Riley said as soon as 22 skids are collected, a truck will be on the road. Collections are scheduled through 2 p.m. Friday. Ohioans have been generous in supporting victims of past disasters, and many are again asking how they can help, Riley said. “When people get their heartstrings tugged, it’s important to coordinate that as fast as possible,” she said. Sinclair President Steve Johnson encouraged the community college’s students, faculty, staff and neighbors to support the effort. “Our hearts go out to the people of Houston impacted by this disaster,” Johnson said. “Sinclair is all about people coming together to support the resolution of local and global challenges.”