Emergency medical workers are continuing their efforts to evacuate people from Alexandria, La. Six people from TLC Emergency Medical Services left Auburn last Friday at midnight and arrived early Saturday. They went to work almost immediately, evacuating people before Hurricane Gustav hit.

“They're still down there,” said TLC operations director Lon Fricano. “It's up to FEMA when they come home.”

The team of six, three from Auburn and three from Cortland, spent the first 36 hours evacuating coastal area hospitals, nursing homes and private patients who were at home with medical needs and moving them to more appropriate shelters, said Scott Cary, one of the volunteers who went to Louisiana.

“Some patients were actually airlifted with the Air Force out to destinations out of state,” Cary, of Auburn, said.

Currently, Cary and the rest of the volunteers from Auburn and Cortland are staying in Ruston, La., in a makeshift medical center located in a gymnasium at Louisiana Tech University, he said. The facility, Ruston Federal Medical Shelter, is run by staff from Veterans Affairs.

Normally, cities have enough resources for day-to-day operations but big incidents like this quickly overwhelm those resources, Fricano said.

“When you have a situation that involves a magnitude of need such as evacuating hospitals, nursing homes ... getting people out of harms way ... it's not hard to imagine that normal operations of EMS would be quickly overwhelmed by circumstances like that,” he said.

Cary said his team is now involved in making sure that evacuated patients have the medical care they need. And while they did not see a lot of devastation because of the storm preparations, they saw many people quickly evacuating the area before the storm hit, he said.

“Some people took things more seriously than others,” Cary said. “Some didn't heed the warnings of public officials.”

Cary recalled seeing one man in or near Houma, La. playing golf by himself while others were trying to get out as fast as possible, he said.

At this point, Cary does not know when the group will return to Auburn, he said.

“All the patients will need to be moved back to the areas they were moved out of,” he said.

Or, at the very least, they need more permanent shelter if they cannot go back to their homes.

Despite the situation, everyone is extremely friendly, Cary said.

“Everything they say about Southern hospitality is true,” he said. “Given their circumstances, it's very remarkable.”

There have been talks about a second call-up, or a request for more personnel and equipment, because of Hurricane Hanna, Fricano said.

“It generally is a very grueling assignment to be put on,” he said.

People don't have normal beds or showers, they work long days and do not know when they're going to come back or what they may encounter when they are there, he added.

“I'm very happy that we're able to help another community,” he said. “It's a very large undertaking and I'm proud of my folks for doing it.”

Staff writer Gitana Mirochnik can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or gitana.mirochnik@lee.net