New York City ambulance companies are sending trucks and crews down to the Gulf Coast as the region prepares for a possible hurricane three years after Katrina.
Citywide Mobile Response Corp. spokesman Isaac Newman tells the Associated Press that his company dispatched five ambulances along with 15 crew members early Friday from its headquarters on Stillwell Avenue in the Bronx. They left about 6 a.m. and are expected to reach the Gulf Coast in about 30 hours.
Newman says his crew members stocked up on various supplies. He says that they were called to deploy at 10 p.m. Thursday by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA did not immediately respond to the AP’s request for comment.
What’s now still Tropical Storm Gustav could become a major hurricane later this weekend, posing the biggest threat to New Orleans since the deadly 2005 storm. The National Guard will start moving in today and an evacuation order is likely to go into effect tomorrow. Residents south of New Orleans could be told to leave today.
YWN has learned additional private ambulance companies based in NYC have dispatched ambulances with crews to Louisiana as well – following the request of FEMA.
(Eli Gefen – YWN Queens Ops’ Desk)
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3 Responses
While there may be a need for ambulances in New Orleans if a hurricane hits, I don’t know how ready the crews would be after a 1300 mile 22 hour drive. There are many large cities, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta etc that are closer and must have ambulances. Sounds like a public relations stunt by FEMA after the 2005 debacle.
To #1,
Sounds like some hemishe person paid off someone to get a gov’t contract!
One thing Louisiana has going for it now is that they dont have that bumbling governor anymore. The new one will tell His Chocolatness Mayor Nagin to MOVE his body part and do what he is supposed to if he cares about his city.
Some people tend to forget that New Orleans was warned about the huricane some 3 days before it hit but the moron Mayor Chocolate Nagin REFUSED to move people out of harms way. There were busses and trains ready to get people out of there but he sat on his botom.
The governor wasnt too much better. He sat there waiting for someone else to do something but that is not the way Government is supposed to work. The Mayor is responsible for the city. If they mayor is asleep on the job, the Governor should have done something but he didnt. The result was that 1000 people were killed for no reason (derech ha’teva) aside for liberal democratic mishigas.
Of course the President and FEMA got blamed even though they inherited a mess from the morons in charge.