Two Lanesborough Emergency Managers Help Efforts To Dig Out Eastern Mass.
.jpg) Hebert and Garrity oversaw a large array of pieces of equipment other states sent to help remove snow in southeastern Massachusetts. |
And when out-of-state agencies sent their plows and backhoes and manpower to help, some of the first Massachusetts people they met were Lanesborough emergency responders.
Deputy EMS Chief JD Hebert and Deputy Fire Chief Butch Garrity ran one of three staging areas in the eastern part of the state for storm response.
Whether it was turnpike authorities from Pennsylvania or the National Guard or the Department of Transportation from New York, Hebert and Garrity managed and organized them upon arrival.
"We were deployed to Bedford to help manage assets coming through," Hebert said on Wednesday, two days after returning home from a five-day stay of 12- to 16-hour work shifts.
Last Thursday, Hebert left his home at 3:30 in the morning and traveled to Middlesex Community College to start his stint. He was joined by Garrity and one other individual to head the operation.
"My specific role was to run state staging area two ... It was like running a little city," he said.
When those extra resources like dump trucks and plows were brought in from out of state, the two inventoried them, registered them into the system, and oversaw the security of the lot. They worked with liaisons from the National Guard, coordinating as all aspects of the additional help sent to their site.
"We got them into our incident management system so they can be deployed," Hebert said. "We had a really good system in place."
Garrity is expected to return home on Thursday. The two were deployed as part of their volunteer role on the Northeastern Massachusetts Incident Management Team. The team of 20 or so was formed and trained through a Western Massachusetts Homeland Security Council grant and has been deployed to numerous major events.
They were deployed during the tornadoes in Springfield in 2011, storms in Greenfield, Hurricane Sandy, and for local events. They don't always manage staging areas; they do whatever they are assigned to do. Hebert, for example, is trained as a public information officer but doesn't hesitate to step into the management role of the staging area.
Garrity and Hebert are the only two emergency responders from the county on the incident management team. The volunteer group is based out of Orange.
"People have different levels of commitment," Hebert said.
Tags: EMS, snow removal, snowstorm, state of emergency,
