Alle-Kiski Valley teams rush to help Pa. flood victims

Personnel from several Alle-Kiski Valley emergency departments are among those assisting in the response to severe flooding in central and eastern Pennsylvania.

The flooding is taking place along the Susquehanna River from New York throughout central and eastern Pennsylvania due to torrential rains from Tropical Storm Lee that have overwhelmed the region.

Personnel and equipment from Blawnox Fire Department and Eureka Fire Rescue of Tarentum are part of Allegheny County's Swift Water and Flood Response Team.

They have been busy since Wednesday conducting rescue missions, retrieving people trapped in their houses, businesses or on rooftops by the fast-moving water, according to George McBriar, Blawnox fire chief and coordinator of the swift water team.

"They are out in Bloomsburg right now, and they have been involved in numerous rescues," McBriar said. "One of my guys told me this morning that they could not even put boats in the water at the intersections because the water was too fast, and our boats are built for swift water. So, they were using helicopters to lift people out by air."

McBriar left for the Harrisburg area late Thursday afternoon with an additional eight team members to join the 12 already at work. He said another team will be heading east today, bringing the total to about 26 people.

The Allegheny County teams include members of Eureka, Blawnox, Glassport, Elizabeth, McKeesport and Northwest EMS, which serves the Ohio River Valley. They are all part of the response from the 12-county area around Pittsburgh known as Region 13.

"I tried to pull a little from each area," McBriar said. "I have three teams out there; they've been out there since yesterday, and we are deploying two more teams now."

In addition to manpower, Allegheny County sent five inflatable boats and was taking another yesterday along with two Jet-Skis, McBriar said.

Brad James, deputy chief at Eureka, said two of the company's members, Jim Weidenhoff and Dave Webb, are part of the Allegheny County group that left Wednesday with some members from Northwest EMS.

"They divided the teams among north and south regions," he said. "They are inundated with calls. I guess it is unprecedented."

"This is not flash flooding, this is river flooding," James said. "It will take days and weeks to go down, and it is widespread."

Randy Brozenick, a South Buffalo resident, is the Armstrong County public safety director and part of the command staff sent by Region 13. He is working in the command center in Harrisburg.

"We coordinate out here, all the water rescue teams and deployments and rescue requests," Brozenick said, adding that the flooded areas cut across the state from north to south.

"I worked the night shift last night and they got real busy for a while, and then it got quiet and then just before daylight, they got busy for about eight hours," he said.

According to Brozenick, Leechburg-based Lower Kiski Emergency Services, which has a water rescue unit, sent a contingent to the flood region.

He estimated that about six Lower Kiski personnel made the trip along with the Region 13 Medical Evacuation and Rehab Vehicle (M.E.R.V.) housed at Lower Kiski.

Murrysville's Medic One, which just returned from aiding the flood response in New Jersey due to Hurricane Irene, left for Bradford County on Wednesday. A state of emergency has been declared in that county, which borders New York.

The 11 paramedics and EMTs, who are trained in swift water rescue, expect to aid in evacuating flood victims. Dan Stevens, Westmoreland County emergency services director, said six swift water teams, comprised of about 35 people overall, have been sent to the flood areas or are on their way.

He said they are from the central part of the county, including three teams from Greensburg.

"They have plenty of fire units out there but they need specialized teams that are trained to do swift water rescue," Stevens said. "They have tremendous amounts of water out there."

McBriar said it is not a case of firefighters simply boarding boats and going out to look for victims. It is much more specialized, he said.

"Our people are trained at technician level," he said. "There are four certification classes they go through and hundreds of hours of training."