Local EMT aids hurricane survivors

Hurricanes Helene and Milton have pummeled much of Florida and the southeast United States in recent weeks.

In their aftermath, close to 300 people have lost their lives and hundreds more have been rescued as of October 14. Many thousands have suffered severe damage to their homes and property.

As pictures and video continue to emerge, people throughout the country are getting a sense of just how much devastation the region has suffered.

Thankfully for residents of the region, they've had the help of emergency response personnel from across the country, including New Rockford's own Josh Homiston.

A 2022 graduate of New Rockford-Sheyenne, Homiston's career in emergency medical services (EMS) advanced to a new level with his first deployment to a disaster area.

In the lead-up to Hurricane Helene, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) got in touch with EMS agencies throughout the country, and contracted with them to deploy additional resources in advance of the storm.

As the operations supervisor of First Medic Ambulance out of Lisbon, N.D., and as a member of the deployment team at Ringdahl EMS, Homiston was among those tapped to head southeast and lend a hand.

He arrived shortly before Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida on Saturday, Sept. 26, and was soon put to work as its devastating aftermath came to light.

"The damage was pretty extensive," recalled Homiston. "The infrastructure was just wrecked, there were damaged roads, and there were a ton of downed power lines and trees."

He described how the downed trees in particular caused problems for emergency responders like him and his crew, who were suddenly blocked from getting where they needed to go until the roads could be cleared.

"There was so much devastation that there weren't enough crews to clear out all the roads fast enough," said Homiston, who added that getting enough fuel was also a big concern for emergency responders.

"Like with every hurricane, there's no power and everyone's trying to evacuate so you've got no fuel, and it makes doing anything that much more difficult," he said.

Homiston also recalled driving past Tropicana Field – where the Tampa Bay Rays play professional baseball – and seeing the entire roof torn off due to the damaging winds of Hurricane Milton.

Videos and pictures emerging online also show entire communities swamped by flood waters and mud. And of course, that's not to mention the tragic toll on human life caused by both hurricanes.

"There was a substantial death toll and there was quite a lot of devastation to life and injuries," said Homiston. "It was extensive."

In the case of both hurricanes, Homiston said crews like his were called to various locations to do any number of necessary tasks.

"Our role was just to provide support wherever it was needed, wherever they sent us orders to go," he said. "With any sort of deployments like these, potential areas you can assist in is covering 9-1-1 calls for services that have downed trucks or providers that can't make it in, or that are just dealing with a flood of calls.

"Other usual tasks are evacuations of medical facilities, and setting up field hospitals to treat patients where there either is no access to healthcare or where the local healthcare network has been taken out due to the storm."

All told, Homiston spent just over two weeks in the Florida area, at first expecting to handle one hurricane, but then being told about a new storm which had strengthened from a tropical depression to a devastating Category 5 hurricane within 24 hours.

"There was quite a lot of uncertainty and unknown," said Homiston about the switch from one hurricane to the next. "We were watching these communities that are trying to recover and they haven't had a chance to ... and then all of a sudden you have to re-prep for another storm.

"These communities had to re-tarp everything, re-board everything up, and they had to get water and supplies that aren't available because they were cleared out for the last storm and are already so scarce."

Homiston and his crew rode out both hurricanes from a relatively safe distance before going into the disaster area, and he recalled how much more difficult it was getting fuel and other resources amid a second mass evacuation in weeks.

But despite the difficulties his and other crews faced, their work went a long way toward getting communities the help they needed.

Homiston said it was a great experience to be in the Florida area providing that assistance, and added that he was particularly struck by seeing entire communities band together amid a crisis.

"It was very eye-opening," he said. "It was very interesting just to see a different ecosystem and how a different community lives, and then you see how they band together. ... It's phenomenal really how people did what they can and are still doing what they can to make a terrible situation a little bit better," he added. "Everyone had the same goal, and they were going to make it happen one way or another."

For Homiston, it likely won't be the last natural disaster he's deployed to.

With an associate's degree in emergency medical services from the NDSCS, and now on the ground providing EMS services in rural North Dakota, he's now doing the fulfilling work he's been wanting to do for years.

"My mom has been in emergency medicine in many different formats ever since I was little, and so just watching her do her thing and put herself second to others, and me just kind of shadowing that made me love it," said Homiston.

His mother, Tanya Munson, has been a member of the Community Ambulance Service of New Rockford for seven years, and her son is now in his fourth year with the local ambulance service.

Simply put, Homiston loves what he does and looks forward to more adventures that allow him to lend a hand whenever it's needed most.

"It's really the adventure," Homiston said about what he enjoys most. "You get to do something different every day and you never know what's coming next. That's why we train really hard so that when the unthinkable happens we can be prepared for it. Basically I can do what I love and have some fun, while helping people."