Narrative

08/29/08- Friday - 11:00 AM: CARE Ambulance Service was contacted by the FEMA Disaster Coordinator and asked to deploy a strike team to the gulf region to help assist in the evacuation of hospitals and convalescent homes that are in the expected path of Hurricane Gustav. Over 300 ambulances from around the country are involved in this activation.

08/29/08 - Friday - 2:00 PM: Within a few hours of the request, Director of Operations Bill Weston had activated the strike team and deployed the assembled resources from CARE Ambulance Service Headquarters to the gulf region. The strike team consists of 5 ambulances and 10 EMT's, two of the EMT's being qualified Ambulance Strike Team Leaders. The expected drive time to the region is 27 hours.

ABC 7 Eyewitness News Story

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08/30/08 - Saturday - 11:15 AM: Hurricane Gustav swells to CATEGORY 4 as of 11:15 AM PST. Winds have reached up to 145 MPH. Landfall is still expected to be anywhere from Texas to the Florida panhandle sometime early Tuesday, September 2, 2008.

CARE Ambulance Service has been assigned to the Texas Regional Center (ARRC), Alamo Command Staging Area, Port of San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas and has been ordered to stage at the Ford Center in Beaumont, Texas.

08/30/08 - Saturday - 7:00 PM: The Strike Team arrived at the Ford Center in Beaumont, Texas.

08/31/08 - Sunday - 3:00 AM: Mandatory evacuations ordered for Beaumont and Port Arthur. Hurricane Gustav drops to a CATEGORY 3 hurricane.

08/31/08 - Sunday - 3:20 AM: The Strike Team deployed to College Street Care Center in Beaumont, Texas to assist in the evacuation of the facility. Ten (10) patients were loaded and transported to Lawrence Street Health Care Center in Tomball, Texas which is located 50 miles NW of Houston. The crews finished the assignment and arrived back at the Ford Center in Beaumont at 11:40 AM. They will get a scheduled 3 hour rest and then be back up for another assignment.

09/01/08 - Monday - 10:00 AM: The Strike Team remains ready to deploy from the Ford Center in Beaumont, Texas. All resources are now sheltering in place until Gustav passes. After the hurricane passes an assessment will be made to either send the team back to San Antonio or move up into Louisiana.

09/01/08 - Monday - 4:40 PM: The CARE Ambulance Strike Team, along with all of the other ambulance resources that were assigned to the Ford Center in Beaumont, Texas, has been reassigned to Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas where they will await further instructions.

09/02/08 - Tuesday - 10:00 PM: The CARE Ambulance Strike Team remained on stand-by throughout the day.

09/03/08 - Wednesday - 9:00 PM. The CARE Ambulance Strike Team deployed to repatriat a group of patients from San Antonio, Texas back to Orange and Sourlake, Texas. Upon completion of the assignment they responded back to San Antonio and arrived back at Kelly AFB at 8:00 AM, Thursday.

09/04/08 - Thursday -10:00 AM: The CARE Ambulance Strike Team received another mission. They picked up another group of pateints from the San Antonio area and repatriated them to Vidor, Orange, and Lumberton, Texas. These patients are bed confined persons who live at home. They were evacuated from their residences prior to Gustav making landfall and are now being taken back to their homes.

09/04/08 - Thursday - 5:30 PM: After completing the last drop off, the strike team was enroute back to San Antonio when they were contacted by the Command Center and re-deployed to Tyler, Texas. They expect to arrive in Tyler around 11:00 PM tonight.

09/05/08 - Friday - 9:00 AM: After a brief rest at the staging are in Tyler, three (3) of the CARE ambulances were paired with five (5) Paramedic ambulances and deployed to Texarkana, Texas where they will load multiple patients that are being repatriated back to Port Arthur, Texas on gulf coast. They should arrive in Port Arthur around 1:00 AM.

09/05/08 - Friday - 3:00 PM: The remaining two (2) units in Tyler, Texas were deployed to repatriate another group of patients back to Vidor, Texas. They arrived arrive in Vidor at 5:00 PM.

09/06/08 - Saturday - 10:00 AM: The CARE Ambulance Strike Team was officially demobilized. The crews will now start back for Orange County.

09/07/08 - Sunday - 11:00 PM: The CARE Ambulance Strike Team arrived at CARE Ambulance Headquarters.

Please check back for future updates...