THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 13, 1995 TAG: 9510110206
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY SUSAN W. SMITH, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 187 lines
LAST WEEK, AS Hurricane Opal gathered speed and raced for the Florida panhandle, five Chesapeake firefighters packed batteries, medical supplies and equipment for their own marathon trip to the Florida coast as part of a regional rescue operation.
Scott A. Hill and William G. Hyatt III are firefighters at Station 2 in Portlock. Anthony J. Stewart, also a cardiac technician, works at Station 8 in Deep Creek. Fireman Christopher P. Poulos is at Great Bridge Station 5, and Jesse A. Wells serves out of Station 12 in Western Branch.
They are also rescue specialists with the FEMA-Virginia Task Force 2 Urban Search and Rescue Team.
Firefighters and rescue workers from Virginia Beach, Newport News, Williamsburg, James City, Franklin County, Norfolk and Chesapeake, as well as fire departments from Norfolk Naval Base, Dam Neck Naval Fleet Combat Training Center and Little Creek Amphibious Base, are on the 160-member task force.
It's one of two such groups in Virginia. The other is based in Fairfax County.
They regularly drill, train and stay prepared to offer almost immediate assistance for disaster situations around the country.
A speedy and safe search of collapsed structures for survivors or victims is the primary goal of the team. Some of them assisted at the site of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.
The task force also is reviewing the need to send a team to Mexico after this week's earthquake.
As Opal landed and surged east of Pensacola, the task force jumped into action and prepared to arrive on the heels of the category 4 storm. A category 5 storm is the most dangerous, and Opal almost qualified.
Chesapeake Fire Chief Kenneth R. Murphy, the technical manager for the FEMA rescue team, said there are 14 Chesapeake fire and EMS officers who are volunteers with the task force. Five of them signed on to make the Florida trip.
They were going about their usual business when beepers recently signaled a task force call.
For days Opal had circled and swirled in the Gulf of Mexico. By Wednesday morning, Oct. 4, the storm had skipped from 60 mph winds to a dangerous 150-mph charge for Pensacola. It was the most powerful storm to threaten the Gulf Coast since 1969, when Camille killed 256 people.
At 11:56 a.m., Hill was at Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach when his beeper sounded. Stewart was on an ambulance call. Hyatt, Wells and Poulos were at home when their pagers flashed that the task force was on alert.
They called Murphy to put their names on the list to go. It was their first deployment.
At 12:50 the alert was upgraded to a call for action. They were told to meet at Fire Station 2 in Portlock for further orders. Hill drove home to Western Branch, grabbed his gear, kissed his wife and daughters and headed for Portlock.
Each jurisdiction of the team has a specific responsibility. The Chesapeake division supplies batteries. Hyatt bought almost 300 pounds of various size batteries at a battery outlet on Military Highway for the flashlights and communication gear.
The next step was to head to the Virginia Beach Fire Training Center on Birdneck Road for a briefing and the selection of the final 62-member team. The Virginia Beach Fire Department is the coordinating agency for the task force.
About 6 p.m., as the eye of the storm passed between Pensacola and Panama City, a route was planned to avoid Opal's wind and rain.
By 8:30 p.m., two buses of trained rescue specialists, medical assistants, two doctors, a canine search team and communication experts were ready for the 22-hour trip.
Thursday evening, a base operation camp was set up in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn at Okaloosa Island in Florida.
Hyatt said that each team is required to be self-sufficient for 72 hours. After that, a relief team or extra supplies are provided.
The task force packs its own tents, medical supplies, food, water and communications equipment. Each man carries his own 40-pound backpack, which includes a flashlight, batteries, change of clothes, first aid kit, utensils and a canteen.
``At September's drill we reviewed and practiced setting up a camp base.'' Stewart said. ``Just a couple of weeks later we put our well-rehearsed plan into action.''
A U.S. Army team and a FEMA group from Miami camped near the Virginia task force's site. According to Hill, troops, helicopters and all-terrain vehicles swarmed the area and checked out the damage.
The five Chesapeake volunteers described widespread destruction, but said they were amazed and relieved that there were no victims to recover at the time.
But there were some surreal and eerie tales.
``When we came out of the tents early Friday morning, the sun was shining, the sky was so clear you could count the points on the stars and the water was peaceful,'' Wells said. ``It was almost impossible to realize what had occurred.''
``It looked like an incredible snowfall,'' Hill said. ``White sand covered almost everything. Cars left in parking lots, driveways and along the road were covered with sand banks.''
``To look as far as you can see down roads buried in white sand or to look along the horizon and see down roads buried in white sand or to look along the horizon and see only devastation and ruins was unsettling," said Poulos. "One day there were houses, shops, hotels, homes, businesses...and the next day everything was rubble or even completely gone.''
Poulos said the majority of the damage was done by storm surge water. He said that other than nuclear power, water is one of the most powerful forces.
``The roof was torn off the Holiday Inn,'' Hill said. ``Couches, chairs and lamps were washed into hallways. Watermarks on the walls indicated the surge had risen more than 20 feet high.''
``In the dining room, chairs were toppled and sand dunes decorated the aisles. Tables were tossed upside down, but yet on some tables glasses and plates were untouched.'' Hyatt said.
Hill and Stewart told of finding two metal poles that marked a spot in the sand. The poles were the top of a swimming pool ladder and the pool was now under more than 10 feet of sand instead of water.
They described a home with floors that had pancaked down on each other, but a closet that was untouched, with clothes still on hangers. At another home, the exterior walls were sheared away, but a package of new shingles was still stacked on the roof waiting for the repair job. There was a house shorn in half, with pictures still hanging on the walls that were left standing.
Hyatt described sand as high as the wall light switches in some homes. He took a picture of a kitchen where the refrigerator was hidden by a sand dune.
There was a boat in a swimming pool, and an entire house bobbed along in the sound where it had washed into the water.
Stewart said there were cars abandoned along the side of the road where they had probably run out of gas during the height of the evacuation, when it took more than four hours to go 15 miles.
They talked to one resident who had attempted to flee in his station wagon only to be trapped by the blowing sand. He stayed in his car during the entire storm.
On Friday, they teamed with the Miami unit for a door-to-door search of Okaloosa Island. They searched more than 30 homes.
Structural engineers first determined whether a building or house was safe to enter. Rescue dogs sniffed through the rubble looking for anyone who might be trapped.
Teams fanned out to check rooms and floors. They shut off gas lines and located utility lines that were down. Then they marked the date, time and the task force's name to show that the house had been searched by their team.
A fiercely barking dog greeted Hill at one house. Hill gave him food, water and called animal assistance.
By Saturday evening they had searched and secured almost 400 homes and buildings. As the residents began returning, the teams switched from safety checks and rescue to helping out.
``Where stairs and porches had washed away, we held ladders so owners could discover what was gone or what they had left,'' Stewart said.
Some residents laughed at only seeing a pile of bricks and boards, while others swayed in shock. Some wanted to talk about starting over, and others just shook their heads in tearful silence.
``The destruction was unreal, but there was no loss of life here,'' Stewart said. ``If they had not evacuated, it would have been a terrible story.''
``Everyone I talked to will always take hurricanes more seriously after this,'' Hyatt said.
``Evacuation is the only thing that saved lives here,'' Wells said. ``What's unsettling also is that much of the area we walked thorough is like Sandbridge, Willoughby Spit or the oceanfront at Virginia Beach.
``We've dodged the bullet through the years,'' he said. ``When officials say get out, get up and leave.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
TO THE RESCUE
The majority of the damage from Hurricane Opal, like what happened
to this house on Okaloosa Island, was the result of storm surge
water.
William G. Hyatt bought almost 300 pounds of batteries for the
team.
The team set up camp on Okaloosa Island in the parking lot of the
Holiday Inn, which lost its roof to the storm.
Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
WILLIAM G. HYATT III, firefighter
``In the dining room, chairs were toppled and sand dunes decorated
the aisles. Tables were tossed upside down, but yet on some tables
glasses and plates were untouched. They were ready for a meal that
would never happen.''
Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
SCOTT A. HILL, firefighter
``The roof was torn off the Holiday Inn. Couches, chairs and lamps
were washed into hallways. Watermarks on the walls indicated the
surge had risen more than 20 feet high.''
Staff photo by LAWRENCE JACKSON
Scott Hill carries his daughters, Alexandria and Danielle, after
spending three days helping Hurricane Opal victims in Florida.
by CNB