Disaster fundraisers ready to add Rita victims -
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Last Visited: 9/24/2005
Nanuet-based Rockland Paramedic Services and its Regional EMS division sent 26 paramedics and emergency medical technicians to New Orleans to assist in relief efforts there, and deployed 63 people Thursday to help areas threatened by Hurricane Rita, said Michael Witkowski, regional EMS chief of operations.
Two Regional EMS ambulances and one Rockland Paramedic Services command vehicle joined a convoy of 22 ambulances and emergency vehicles from across New York state as part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's activation of New York emergency services for Hurricane Rita.
The New York convoy went to Harrisburg, Pa., on Thursday night and then to Knoxville, Tenn., where they met convoys from Vermont and Pennsylvania.They were to arrive in Little Rock, Ark., last night and will wait for their orders there, Witkowski said.
"From there, they can strategically go into Louisiana or Texas," he said."They'll be providing everything from street 911 services to moving elderly patients from nursing homes and hospitals to evacuation centers, to manning medical clinics and evacuation centers and setting up mobile hospitals down at the site."
Witkowski said the FEMA response for Hurricane Rita was better-coordinated than for Hurricane Katrina.
"Last time, we were ready the day after Katrina hit.It took seven days for FEMA to contact us and deploy us," he said.