All lost Some and Some Lost All!
Helping is what we do!
We here in the Community of Elsanor Alabama feel the pain and loss of our neighbors in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Our community has come together with other communities in our county and have helped in various ways. Some have helped our displaced neighbors in housing and supplies here at home and supplies and help sent to the hurricane stricken areas!
Our Fire Department decided to help some of the other Volunteer Fire Departments who lost all due to the storm. We were able to contact personnel in the Emergency Operations Command at Stennis International Airport in Hancock County Mississippi. Here we found out that several Volunteer Fire Departments had lost almost all of their equipment!
We learned that Bayside Volunteer Fire Department sustained a 100% loss of all their equipment and the station itself! They had no fire fighting equipment whatsoever. No trucks to respond to any fires that occurred in their area. A unanimous decision was made to donate our old Tanker/Pumper Truck and our old Brush Truck. These trucks have not been used for quite awhile as we have newer vehicles that we use to take care of our community!
On Sunday September 18, 2005 we drove the old tanker/pumper and brush truck to Stennis International Airport to deliver them to Representatives of Bayside Fire Department! When they arrived we could tell that they were overjoyed that they now had firefighting vehicles to work with! All of the Firefighters of Bayside Volunteer Fire Dept have lost their homes from the hurricane and estimated 30 ft. tidal surge. They have no station but they have a concrete slab where the vehicles once were parked. Fema is going to be setting up a trailer so they can use as a fire station/shelter for the firefighters. The Chief of Bayside agreed that the brush truck was really an important vehicle due to the large amount of debris and the ability of the brush truck being able to get around the blocked roads and get some water on the fire as soon as possible and that the tanker was very important as there was no water service anymore in the area that it is going to be used in!
I guess we can now consider Bayside Mississippi as our sister community and those old trucks will I am sure be of great use to our brother Firefighters in Bayside!
God Bless America!
