Iowa Ambulance Agency Sends Special Response Team to Support St. Croix EMS Crews Post-Hurricane Maria

Special response team from Arkansas provides relief & support to local EMS crews after Maria’s devastation

Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix, destroying power lines, uprooting trees, collapsing houses and beaching boats along the island’s shore. Photos courtesy Andrew Ney

On Tuesday, Oct. 24, Pafford Medical Services Corporate Director of Operations Clay Hobbs asked me if I’d be interested in joining his company’s hurricane deployment assignment in St. Croix on the U.S. Virgin Islands.
I jumped at the opportunity. Little did I know that I’d face a hospital closing, a nearly deserted EMS system, failing electrical power and a multiple gunshot wound victim flagging us down all on the first day.

Pafford SRT personnel worked 48-hour shifts to ensure an EMT and paramedic would be staffed on each U.S. Virgin Islands EMS ambulance.

Integrating Personnel
At 6 p.m. on Oct. 25, 2017, I joined 11 other members of Pafford boarding the Garrett Memorial Church Bus to head from Hope, Ark., to Dallas, to catch a commercial flight to St. Croix the next morning.

Source: JEMS Operations - March 13, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Andrew Ney, BA, NRP Tags: Major Incidents Operations Source Type: news