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Stacy-Lent Volunteer Fire Department member and paramedic John Daher has seen first hand the devastation that a natural disaster can cause in the Midwest.

His experiences of responding to calls for help after tornados and blizzards has put him in the midst of areas where virtually everything was lost. But nothing compares to what he saw when he went to New Orleans recently.

Daher volunteered to work on a contracted crew of EMTs and paramedics from North Ambulance Service who traveled to New Orleans to help out in the hurricane-ravaged city.

Daher, who has worked as a paramedic for North for 10 years, said he volunteered right away when North drew a contract with the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA).

Crews of eight members, including both EMTs and paramedics, were assigned to work with New Orleans emergency personnel in some of the hardest-hit areas of the city. Daher was there from Sept. 25 to Oct. 3.

He said seeing the damage first-hand was unbelievable.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “I grew up here seeing what tornados can do, but at least then you can salvage things. Water destroys everything.”

During his time there, he spoke with one resident who had just returned from her home where she salvaged everything she could. It all fit into a one-foot square box, he said.

Daher and his fellow crew members were assigned to assist at a Combat Surgical Aid Hospital (CSAH) based out of the New Orleans Convention Center. The facility is set up as a full-scale military hospital, providing medical care from first aid to surgery.

In his first few days stationed there, Daher said his primary role was to see patients being brought in. Much of his time was spent giving shots and administering medications for minor illness and injury.

The rest of the time, the emergency crews were out on the streets, assisting where needed.

Many days, that meant being on stand-by for public safety personnel, particularly fire departments as they fought a number of structure fires. “Unfortunately, a lot of people there don’t have flood insurance, but they do for fires,” Daher said.

Daher said there was a lot of down time, but the crews were glad that most residents had not returned home. “Most people we were seeing were EMS, fire, police and clean up crews,” he said.

As they drove around, Daher snapped photos of the devastation they encountered. The lower Ninth Ward area of New Orleans sustained considerable damage, as has been repported nationally, he said.

But it’s not just the poor neighborhoods that were wiped out, Daher added. “There was damage in some middle to high income neighborhoods too,” he said. “You didn’t really see that on the news.”

Daher drove by the Superdome, but no one was allowed to go in. “Unless you were part of the clean-up crew, you couldn’t get in,” Daher said.

He’s not sure what the conditions are like inside, but Daher talked to at least one emergency worker who didn’t want it to ever open again. “He wouldn’t elaborate, but after seeing what he saw there, he hopes it doesn’t open again.”

Even the Convention Center, where his crew was stationed while working there, has areas where the floors are strewn with debris. In the atrium of the building, everything is being destroyed – from the furniture to the carpeting. “It was bad,” Daher said.

Despite the damage around them, Daher was amazed at the optimism of the New Orleans EMS crews.

“They lost about 20 units (trucks) and about 40 employees who chose to leave for different reasons,” he said. “But overwhelmingly, they stayed.”

EMS personnel may have been the most affected sector of public safety because of residency restrictions. If you work for a New Orleans EMS crew, you must live there, Daher said. “They’re thinking about lifting the restrictions because there’s nowhere for them to live. Most of them lost everything,” he said.

While the EMS crews handled light case loads within the city, hospitals on the outskirts of New Orleans are feeling the pressure of added patients.

Daher said the largest state-run hospital in downtown New Orleans – Charity Hospital – is still closed, along with two or three others in the downtown area. One nearby hospital has been able to reopen its emergency room, but it cannot admit people or perform surgeries.

The patient loads of seven or eight hospitals are now being handled by 2 or 3. “The biggest problem is there’s no staff,” Daher said.

Yet, humor seems to be the primary emotion for many in the city, Daher said. “A lot of people are hopeful and there is a lot of humor down there.”

He heard one man report back to his sister about what he found after visiting her house to assess the damage.

“He told her it’s terrible that she left her house in such a state with visitors coming over, and her husband must have been drunk the night before because the car was parked sideways right next to the garage,” Daher said.

Residents who are thinking about rebuilding are paying a lot of attention to those homes still standing, Daher said. “They’re seeing that brick and concrete buildings seemed to hold up a lot better than wood,” he said.

Daher has mixed feelings over how the disaster was handled by local and federal authorities.

“I don’t believe they followed their emergency plan. Because of where the city is, they had to have made an evacuation plan,” he said.

But he doesn’t believe they could have fully prepared for the destruction caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita and playing the blame game doesn’t help. “I’m of the opinion, find out where the problems are and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

He said one good thing coming from this is it is forcing cities across the nation to take a hard look at their own emergency plans, including Stacy, where Daher is a member of the city council.

“In Stacy we should be looking hard at those plans, like what happens in a tornado or blizzard, or access is cut off on the freeway. For us here, those are real,” Daher said.

While he wasn’t very busy with patients in New Orleans, Daher felt it was important to be there. “If nothing else, we showed support for their emergency personnel,” he said. “I have never heard of a group so highly thought of as those EMS crews.”

Daher has already volunteered to take another shift in New Orleans, although he is not sure if FEMA’s contract with North will be extended. It was already extended while he was in New Orleans, Daher said. So far, North crews have been in New Orleans for six weeks.

Daher said even if the contract is extended, it could mean that crews will be sent to work in other areas hit by recent natural disasters.

Daher has been with North for 10 years and has been a paramedic for 14 years.

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