By John McMillan
The Advocate
Copyright 2006 Capital City Press
All Rights Reserved
SORRENTO, Ill. — Before Hurricane Katrina, the Sorrento Fire Department answered about 300 emergency calls a year.
So far this year, the department has answered more than 500 calls, Fire Chief Mike Lambert said.
It has been a strain on the Volunteer Fire Department, but some assistance is en route from Barrington, Ill.
The Barrington Countryside Fire Department has donated two ambulances to fire departments in areas affected by Katrina, one to Sorrento and another to Houma.
The ambulances will be driven from Barrington, a suburb northwest of Chicago, by a group from four Lutheran churches.
The Rev. Gerald Schalk of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Barrington is leading the 53-person contingent that is bringing the ambulances filled with food which will be donated to the Baton Rouge Food Bank.
The group will leave Jan. 5 and is scheduled to arrive at the former Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in eastern New Orleans on Jan. 6.
The Prince of Peace church and school were heavily damaged in Katrina and have been converted into Camp Restore, a place housing volunteers who are helping New Orleans recover from the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.
This will be the Illinois group’s second trip to Camp Restore.
Last January, the group reroofed a house and gutted some other houses. This year, Schalk said, members will gut houses before delivering the ambulances.
Lambert, who is president of the Louisiana Fire Chiefs Association, said his department has a serious need for the ambulance as the result of the increased number of emergency calls.
“It will be used as a first responder to emergency medical calls,” Lambert said. “It will be a transport unit of last resort. We’re licensed to transport if needed, but we provide basic life support and assist Acadian Ambulance and the Gonzales Fire Department,” he said.
“With the ambulance, we will be able to handle multiple calls more efficiently,” Lambert said. And the emergency calls have increased dramatically since Hurricane Katrina, he said.
“Since Katrina, 23 people have died in crashes on Interstate 10 in what we called ‘The Zone,’ a 12-mile stretch between the Sorrento exit and the Gramercy exit,” Lambert said.
“It’s a beautiful stretch of road, smooth and straight,” he said. Most of the crashes occur between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., he said. “There is no correlation between the accidents. No age group, no male-female, no race. It’s just peak traffic and high speed,” Lambert said.
The ambulance will be of real benefit to those injured and to the volunteer firefighters, he said. “Not only can we transport medical equipment and personnel, it is dangerous for volunteers driving their own personal cars. The ambulance is safer. We consider the ambulance an improvement in the quality of life both inside and outside the city limits of Sorrento,” Lambert said.
The ambulance also will be of assistance in another hurricane.
“During the contraflow out of New Orleans, we were hammered with emergency calls, nursing home patients on buses, pregnant women, one person died unattended on a bus,” Lambert said. “Sorrento is the first stop out of New Orleans. We had 20 medical emergencies in 24 hours. It was tough on our volunteers, and the new ambulance will be a big help.
“We’re planning a gumbo to thank the people from Barrington,” he said.