By Jim McLean
KHI News Service
GREENSBURG, May 11
An emergency field hospital has been dispatched here by the Kansas National Guard to help with relief efforts following the tornado that leveled the city last week.
The so-called Expeditionary Medical Support System field hospital was sent to provide the devastated community a 25-bed critical care unit in place of the destroyed Kiowa County Memorial Hospital, according to the Kansas Adjutant General’s office.
Maj. Mark Green of the Kansas Air National Guard, who was overseeing the operation here, said “our goal is to have it fully functional by close of business on Tuesday.”
Green had been in contact with the
administrator
for the
county
hospital. The plan was for workers from the county hospital to begin staffing the military field hospital beginning next week.
Twelve trucks were loaded with the field hospital
components at the 190th Air Refueling Wing, Topeka, and left for Greensburg at approximately 6 a.m. Friday. Unloading
and set-up was to have
begun early that afternoon on west U.S. Highway
54 across from the Greensburg John Deere dealership. But National Guard and Army reservists were still working at 5 p.m. to clear the site of a destroyed church where the field hospital will be placed.
Meanwhile, the field hospital
remained on the
trucks in Pratt awaiting the site preparation.
Traffic was steady into the town as hundreds of relief workers did their part to remove debris and rubble.
“It doesn’t get any better than this from a service perspective,” Green said. “You’ve got Air Force dump truck operators working with Army loaders.”
Others from the Kansas Department of Transportation, Kansas Highway Patrol
and federal emergency
agencies also were busy. Near the Deere dealership were crumpled, overturned combines and other heavy farm equipment that had been scattered by the cyclone. A half dozen trees were still standing but
stripped bare.
“It’s a war zone. It’s a wreck, sir,” said Capt. Robert Parvin, describing the scene by phone to a superior. Parvin was leading a National Guard transportation unit based in Olathe.
“The Expeditionary Medical Support System is going down to replace the hospital in Greensburg until a new facility can be constructed,” Brig. Gen. Deborah Rose, director of Joint Forces Headquarters Kansas said in a prepared statement. “The hospital lost virtually everything. The Expeditionary Medical Support System has equipment and space for just about any service a regular hospital provides surgery, dental care, laboratory services, pharmacy, supply and in-patient care.
“We look at this as an opportunity to provide hope to the community and start the rebuilding process,” Rose said.
Rose said the emergency hospital unit
is based
with the 190th Air Refueling Wing, which is the only organization in the country
that has one
dedicated to homeland security. She said it
will be the central location for EMEDS logistic support throughout the United States.
The
field hospital
was first used for relief operations in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, which was the first time an EMEDS unit was used domestically for disaster relief, according to the Adjutant General.