FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa.– M915A5 freightliners from the Pennsylvania National Guard packed with pallets of water and Meals Ready to Eat arrived at Palisades High School to provide to those effected by Hurricane Sandy, on Oct. 31, 2012.
“This storm, Hurricane Sandy, was so overwhelming… that I could see that the church was starting to struggle to feed people”, said Thomas Macfarlan, Nockamixon Township Emergency Management volunteer coordinator.
“So through our protocol I sent in an unmet needs request to the bucks county emergency management agency for food assistance to help feed people at the shelters. That’s where Bucks county emergency management then sent the request in to PEMA who contacted the National Guard to provide us with food to feed everybody, and get them water.”
Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, or PEMA, requested the PA National Guard for support, who went to work loading water and MREs onto the trucks of the 131st Transportation Company, said Sgt. John Ferrari, yard noncommissioned officer, and a Lancaster, Pa native.
For Ferrari, the task was making sure that the correct counts were loaded and everyone in his yard was operating safely and quickly, he said.
Once the three M915A5 freightliners of the 131st Trans. Co. were loaded and on the road, the mission was then in the hands of Sgt. Tommy Vassallo, motor transport operator and team leader for the 131st Trans. Co. and convoy commander for the trip to Kintnersville.
As part of the mission to provide the community with water and food, airmen from the 201st Red Horse, a PA Air National Guard unit, were to transport and operated a forklift at Palisades high school, said Vassallo, an Allentown, Pa. native.
The airmen, Staff Sgt. Eric Reifsnyder and Senior Airmen Remington Kauffman, both heavy equipment pavements and Reading, Pa natives, arrived shortly after the131st Trans. Co. and both guard units went to work.
Volunteer fire fighters from the local Station 49, Ottsville Fire Company helped unpacked the pallets as they were unloaded by the National Guard.
“The National Guard does a different job then we do, but it’s all about everyone supporting everybody at the community,” said Jim Keogh, deputy chief of Station 49 Ottsville Fire Company, and an Ottsville, Pa., native. “A lot of guys haven’t stopped since Sunday night. Maybe an hour here, or a couple hours there for sleeping, but we have guys manning the station 24/7.”
Keogh, who has been a fire fighter for 22 years, has never seen anything like the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, he said.
“We cover parts of four municipalities in this area including Tinicum, Nockamixon, Haycock, and Bedminster townships. All the power lines are down. It’s not like one here and one there, it’s like ten here and nine transformers down; like complete woods leveled,” he said.
Inside Palisades high school nearly 30 residents signed the book to sleep in the school, while more than 500 community members had signed the American Red Cross book for needing either food or a shower for today alone, said Nancy Hansen, American Red Cross Shelter night shift manager.
The shelter was getting close to the limits on water, so it is great to see the National Guard come out to support us, she said.
The speed of PEMA and the National Guard’s response to the request for support is what really amazed Mcfarlane, he said.
“We sent in the request to help feed the people in the shelter and next thing we know, several hours later I got a phone call from the bucks’ county emergency management agency that I had soldiers coming from Fort Indiantown Gap the [Guard] to help us feed our people,” he said. “It’s absolutely wonderful to see our military helping and government agencies coming together, to help the people when they need it the most.”
Just after 12 a.m., the trucks were completely emptied and the forklift was once more loaded onto the back of the trailer. Thirty six pallets of water and 11 pallets of MREs had been stored inside the school’s cafeteria or inside the school’s garage.
For at least one soldier, seeing the appreciation and gratitude drove home the ideas of why she enlisted, said Sgt. Ashley Bailor Harrer, a dispatcher for the 131st Trans. Company, and Dillsburg, Pa. native.
“I joined the Army because before 9/11, that’s when I joined, you [saw] National Guard soldiers help out with hurricanes and tornadoes and that kind of inspired me to join,” she said. “And being able to help out the community and this is actually the first time in 11 and half years that I got to go on state orders and help out the community.”
For tonight, the task of delivering the supplies to Palisades was completed, but with communities still without power like Kintnersville, the soldiers of the 131st Trans. Company headed back to Fort Indiantown Gap, where more delivery runs were being prepared.