After the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina to the Gulf States, Westmed/McCormick sent their Disaster Support Unit Strike Team to Louisiana on Friday September 2, 2005. Convoying a with a fleet of Westmed/McCormick Vehicles, they reached Louisiana after two days of traveling by day and by night. The following are dispatches and pictures sent from the Westmed/McCormick Disaster Support Unit Strike Team on scene in New Orleans, Louisiana:

October 18, 2005- 3:30pm

The Westmed/McCormick mission to the Gulf region has concluded. All crews have returned home safely. The final crew returned home Sunday, Oct 16, 2005.

The mission was a tremendous success. Westmed/McCormick proved to ourselves and our industry that we can deploy strike teams anywhere in the country and sustain them for several weeks on end without disrupting our day to day operations in California.

All Westmed/McCormick employees, including the employees that stayed behind and shouldered addional workload, should be commended for an excellent job well done.

It is good to be back and Westmed/McCormick will have a “Welcome Home Bar-B-Que” for all employees when the weather gets better.

Thanks to everyone for making this mission a great success!

September 29, 2005- 9:30am

In Houston, the order of the day is still mass evacuations.

Prior to storm, people were evacuated into convalescent homes and hospitals that everyone thought would be safe from Hurricane Rita, but Rita’s course changed direction and came directly through these “safe” areas and wiped out the power. Thus, we are still undertaking major evacuations from facilities with no power and other storm related damages.

We have been going out in strike teams of 10 to 15 ambulances to the forward command areas where we wait for assignments from main dispatch. We are sometimes sent out in groups and sometimes individually. Afterwards, we meet back at base camp.

Frustrations are high and organization is low in the Houston area. However, even given the difficulty of the circumstances faced by them, the employees of Westmed/McCormick that are in the in the disaster areas of TX and LA are doing an outstanding job and recognized that it is a relief effort and not vacation; they are working very hard and have held together very well. These employees are gracious with their time and Westmed/McCormick greatly appreciates their excellent efforts.

In New Orleans, Troy Goodspeed has his strike team “dialed in” and they are now veterans of the city; they have made it their home and some have started to take care of local stray dogs. As stated in an earlier dispatch, our contract in New Orleans has been extended six weeks as the city continues to try to get back to normal.

Joe Chidley

September 28, 2005- 8:30am

The Houston strike team is now living in same facility that Katrina evacuees were sent to at the Astrodome. 100’s of ambulances and emergence, forestry and search and rescue personal are all staged at the Reliant Sports arena which is on the same campus as the Houston Astrodome

We are mostly running evacuations from hospitals and skilled nursing facilities in areas that have lost their power and where oppressive heat has caused many heat related illnesses to be suffered by the elderly due to lack of air conditioning or proper shelter. Areas such as Cleveland, TX, Liberty, TX and Livingston, TX have lost all power and 100’s of skilled nursing patients need cooler environments; they are suffering from dehydration and there is nowhere to send them. It is quite a predicament.

The hospitals in the Houston area that are open were already filled to capacity with Katrina victims from Louisiana. Thus, what the people are facing are overcrowded hospitals and oppressive heat along with no power or air conditioning; this situation creates a real backlog for patients. So now we are taking patients from the Houston area to Dallas, San Antonio and as far away as the Oklahoma border.

As for New Orleans, some of the original New Orleans strike team members have returned. We have received an addition 6 week extension of our contract with the EMS agency. Greg Chidley is the new team leader in New Orleans and Troy Goodspeed will be coming home.

Crew rotations in New Orleans and Houston are occurring every 7 days. After 7 days half of the crew will be rotated out and new members will replace them. I will be retuning from Houston on Friday and Lucas Thompson will be replacing me here as team leader.

Joe Chidley

September 23, 2005- 2:00pm

Westmed/McCormick arrived with ambulances in Houston, Texas at 2 pm Friday, Los Angeles time. Earlier in the week, FEMA requested Westmed/McCormick’s assistance with hurricane Rita and asked us to respond to the Houston area.

Upon our arrival in Texas, we found a much more organized and proactive response by the federal government than occurred in New Orleans, as one might expect.

We are staying in large warehouse located at the convention center and we are parking inside the center where there is space available for 1000’s of ambulances and people. 50 different providers from around the country have responded to the Houston area in anticipation of the arrival of hurricane Rita

As for New Orleans, our response team is being headed by Troy Goodspeed, and he reports that as of Friday there was heavy rain in his area. They are located in the Algiers section of the city which had been deemed the safest part of the city because of its high ground.

September 12, 2005- 2:00pm

View pictures of the first week the Westmed/McCormick Strike Team was in the New Orleans area.

September 8, 2005- 5:00pm

The Westmed/McCormick Strike Team has been relocated to the downtown New Orleans area. We have set up “Camp Westmed/McCormick” in front of Harrah’s Hotel and Casino. There are no open facilities in the downtown area.

Even though all buildings are closed, there is a mass of activity in the downtown New Orleans area. Thousands of military personnel saturate the area in addition to hundreds of police officers from all over the nation. Nearly one thousand media trucks , ambulances and fire trucks fill the streets of downtown, while a steady stream of helicopters move over head in and out of evacuation points located at the Convention Center, just down the street.

The Westmed/McCormick Strike Team has been moved to a new sleeping location. There is no air conditioning or hot water available and it can be quite uncomfortable at night; especially due to the very large mosquitoes that frequent this area after the sun sets as well as the unpleasent smells.

We now handle 911 emergency calls in downtown New Orleans. We work with the New Orleans EMS agency and have been assigned one New Orleans' EMS paramedic to ride along in our supervisor vehicle. The New Orleans' paramedic has radio contact with EMS dispatch and we are informed of our next assignment through him. The Westmed/McCormick ambulance follows the supervisor’s vehicle to the location and the New Orleans' EMS Paramedic gives the ambulance unit directions to the nearest hospital and the supervisor’s vehicle returns to lead out the next ambulance. In essence, the New Orleans' EMS Paramedic is “bird dogging” for our Strike Team. We do have excellent radio contact between Westmed/McCormick units and our GPS units work flawlessly; this has been an immeasurable help in this disaster environment.

The second deployment of the Westmed/McCormick Strike Team will be arriving on scene in downtown New Orleans after their flight on Saturday. Subsequent to orientating the new team, the original Strike Team will be flying home on Sunday, September 11, 2005.

It should be noted that the large contingent of the military has the once desperate criminal situation of downtown New Orleans now under control. However, the total devastation of this area is still disheartening.

Joe Chidley

September 05, 2005- 7:00am

The Westmed/McCormick Strike Team was sent to West Jefferson Medical Center located in the Jefferson Parish area of New Orleans, Louisiana. This area of New Orleans was one of the hardest hit by hurricane Katrina. Westmed/McCormick will be evacuating patients to areas possibly as far away as Dallas, Texas which is 519 miles away from New Orleans.

Today the Strike Team was awoken at 5:00 am this morning and received and escort from Acadian ambulance to the West Jefferson Medical Center; Acadian Ambulance is headquarter in Lafayette, Louisiana. The Jefferson Parish area was New Orleans' first suburb - a bedroom community west of New Orleans. Today the area is a scene of great devastation with the military and police out in great numbers.

September 05, 2005- 9:00pm

Well, after 38 hours of travel we arrived late Sunday night at the Acadian Ambulance headquarters in Lafayette, Louisiana. Here we were briefed, received multiple vaccinations from Acadian staff and our mission orders. By 0600 we were ready to assist local EMS in New Orleans. We arrived at West Jefferson hospital where we received further instructions to transport a total of 6 patients to various locations inside of Louisiana as well as parts of Texas. This aided the hospital in vacating the much-needed beds for the constant flow of incoming critical patients. Our personnel received considerable support from local ambulance providers and local law enforcement. Armed military personnel provided escorts to ensure safety of all ambulance personnel and patients in any areas to even remotely consider to be a threat. We were also provided food, a place to shower and sleep by Acadian Ambulance at the local school.

This has been an excellent opportunity for us to put into action our strike teams rapid deployment plan and to ensure that all systems including resources, technology and equipment would perform to Westmed / McCormick high standards. This has allowed us to quickly identify systems that work as well as systems that can be improved. We all know the pit-falls of relying on systems and procedures that look great on paper but break down under actual deployment.

As our first day of deployment comes to a close, we are happy to report that most all systems worked flawlessly! We did gain some additional knowledge from our practical applications, but overall it has been quite successful and a tremendous learning experience.

Tomorrow (09-06-05) at 0900, we will again be briefed on the days requirements and how we can assist this disaster stricken area.

Joe Chidley