A doctor's story of helping after Hurricane Matthew

A team of about 75 rescue specialists and medical professionals from Ohio geared up in the middle of the night and left the state in a 14-vehicle convoy to help with destruction from Hurricane Matthew.

Ohio State’s Dr. Dan Bachmann is on the team, called Ohio Task Force 1, which started out late Thursday. The group, one of 28 urban search and rescue teams managed by Federal Emergency Management Agency, positioned itself in Georgia over the weekend as the hurricane bore down on the coast, waiting to find out where help was needed most.

While the team members waited, sometimes seeing the hurricane’s outer cloud bands, they practiced mission scenarios and maintained their variety of specialized equipment, Dr. Bachmann explained in a series of texts during his travels. The entire team receives daily medical screenings, too.

The team received its updated orders on Saturday: Head toward the Carolinas where the flooding was expected to be bad.

The caravan was slowed by high water and downed trees that blocked roads, including the interstate.

They finally arrived at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and started assisting residents around 4 a.m. Sunday.

Working in shifts for more than 24 hours, the team from Ohio used boats to rescue at least two dozen stranded people and many family pets, according to reports from WHIO-TV in Dayton, whose crew is traveling with Ohio Task Force 1.

Dr. Bachmann, who works in the Emergency Department at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, was stationed at a local volunteer firehouse to provide medical treatment.

“Fortunately, no one was extremely sick, but many had clearly been affected by their prolonged exposure to the elements,” he says.

He saw some buildings with water levels as high as their roofs, and some people lost their homes completely, he says. Much of the area lost power, and multiple bridges and dams failed, making normal routes unusable, he adds.

The flooding also drove many animals from their shelters, Dr. Bachmann says. At one point, Ohio rescuers in boats helped guide cattle out of high waters.

Eventually, the team moved a bit south to another town where a levee had broken, launching its rescue boats once again.

Dr. Bachmann, one of two physicians on the mission, says two people the team helped with serious conditions were a woman with bleeding treated with a tourniquet and a man with low body temperature and low blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

By the time the team got word Monday evening that its work in the field was ending, its members had helped rescue almost 100 people in the different towns.

That count comes from the TV reporter who accompanied the group to document its work.

Dr. Nicholas Kman of Ohio State’s Emergency Department also deploys with Task Force 1 on some missions, though he didn’t go on this trip. When he or Dr. Bachmann is called to help last-minute, the Emergency Department staff pitches in to cover their hospital shifts.

Learn more about Ohio Task Force 1, which is at-the-ready to help Ohio and other states in an emergency.

Donate to help people affected by Hurricane Matthew through the Red Cross, or find a blood drive near you, as many drives in the affected areas were canceled because of the storm.

This update of a story that first appeared on the blog on Oct. 10 includes additional information about the Task Force's mission.