Emergency personnel from across the United States are helping in the Carolinas as Hurricane Florence makes landfall, and five members of Troup County American Medical Response are assisting. Emergency medical technicians Heather Blanton, Denise Monteith, Season Grzesik, Matt Daniel and Lynn Henry are in Spartanburg, South Carolina to assist with Federal Emergency Management Agency along with 40 other AMR personnel from the state.

“AMR Georgia houses one of the eastern FEMA fleet garages in Stone Mountain,” said Brian Lee, Troup County AMR operations manager. “We probably have approximately 100 to 125 ambulances that sit in a warehouse that are constantly being maintained, so that when they are ready to deploy, they could do it fairly quick. We also have an [operation emergency management] that reports directly [to FEMA] and works directly with FEMA in all of their requests.”

Lee said they deployed staff when Hurricane Irma was coming through Georgia last year.

Lee said the five EMT’s traveled to South Carolina on Wednesday. 

“I’ve been keeping up with them six, seven, eight times a day just to make sure they don’t need anything, and they’re eating good, and everything’s good,” Lee said. 

“The last time that I talked to them, last night, they actually got into an airplane hangar [to get out of the weather.]”

Lee said he expects the EMTs to return in about a week. Lee said the AMR personnel are like an extended family, and all five volunteered to assist.

“We’re a bit smaller and a bit more family-oriented down here,” Lee said. “Me and Monteith talk a lot since she’s been gone. They call her ‘Mother D’ just because we are one of the older people around here, so we just kind of make sure they have different levels of experience.”

AMR isn’t the only agency sending in help to the Carolinas. According to a press release from the Salvation Army, four of its Georgia mobile kitchen units from Atlanta, Newnan, Dublin and Valdosta are being sent to Charlotte, North Carolina for “mass feeding, hydration and spiritual care to the most affected areas.”

Those interested in relief efforts with the Salvation Army can make financial donations at helpsalvationarmy.org, calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY or texting STORM to 51555. Donations can also be mailed to Salvation Army Service Center, P.O. Box 3087, LaGrange, Georgia.