NEW BERN, N.C. (WITN) – It was a call to action Thursday morning.
“We have equipment and gear that our personnel have that’s ready pretty much 24 seven,” said Captain Steven Jerome with New Bern Fire-Rescue NCTF-10.
The crews from Eastern North Carolina are heading to help others as Hurricane Helene heads toward the United States.
“They’re currently going to a station in Rockingham, and then from there, they’ll be given specific orders out for wherever they’re needed,” said Captain Jerome.
Six people are traveling from the Greenville and New Bern team while Captain Jerome stays back in eastern Carolina to help. “I’ll be fielding any phone calls or handling any issues that they may have in the field that I can handle from here.”
The ECU Health Capacity & Throughput Vice President Jacob Parrish says they have a team in partnership with the Eastern Healthcare Preparedness Coalition that helped when tropical storm Debby hit ENC this summer.
“We sent a medical bus down to help move the residents out of that location to another location to make sure they were safe,” said Parrish.
However, for Helene, they have a different area of focus.
“At this time, no, we don’t have a crew going south; our focus is to really help the folks impacted in Eastern North Carolina,” said Parrish.
Of the personnel headed to Asheville, seven people are from Morehead City Fire-EMS, two from Newport Fire Department, and three from Washington Fire-Rescue-EMS, known as the Crystal Coast Water Rescue Team.
It’s currently unknown how long the crews will have to stay in western North Carolina, but Captain Jerome said they are planning for 10 days.
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Publish date : 2024-09-26 15:53:00
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