In praise of hurricane heroes
Published: September 28, 2004
Brevard has host of superstars, who set their own safety aside to serve with great courage.
The Space Coast must again struggle to its feet after a third hurricane in six weeks.
But while many of the storm stories are grim, some show such bravery they can only leave us in awe.
The heroes in these tales don’t get their names in lights. But when they’re on the job, they put the movie-set bravery and tough-guy bravado of swaggering pretenders to shame.
These heroes are the ones who work for the public. . . . the police, the firefighters, the emergency medical technicians, rescue teams, Sheriff’s Office employees and others, who literally lay their lives on the line to protect us.
They do it every day, saving lives in quiet ways that often go unsung.
They did it again during Hurricane Jeanne, and this time, these usually reticent heroes couldn’t keep it a secret.
We don’t know all the situations faced during this hellish weekend in which our protectors made life better, or even possible, for the rest of us — but we know a few.
And as we all struggle to meet the challenges following this series of blows, we can only be inspired by the fortitude of people we too often take for granted.
If the devastation is leaving you in need of inspiration, consider the rescuers who at the height of the hurricane, with gusts well over 100 mph, gently guided more than 100 frail elderly and ill residents out of a Melbourne special-needs shelter that was losing sections of roof.
Facing a dark night of screaming winds and a parking lot sprayed with debris, these residents were understandably frightened, but they could not have been in better hands than those of real-life saviors from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, Melbourne Police Department and Brevard County Fire-Rescue.
Despite conditions, each resident was calmed and taken from endangered Sherwood Elementary School; placed in vehicles, with walkers, wheelchairs, oxygen, nebulizers, bundles of belongings and packages of critical medicines; and moved to safer shelter at nearby Brevard Community College.
Or consider that while most of us were relatively secure in homes or shelters, members of Fire Rescue Station 86 in Micco became saving angels for at least five people whose mobile homes in Barefoot Bay were being torn apart by winds.
Without those firefighters, an elderly couple with health problems and a middle-aged couple who perhaps didn’t know the power of a hurricane, might not have made it through the storm.
And an elderly man who had run in a last grasp at safety from his collapsing home to his car would never have seen the welcome face of rescue at his rain-washed window.
Only the auto’s headlights shining through masses of flying debris alerted the rescue team to the elderly man’s plight, as the team searched the streets of the community in the department’s Chevy Suburban.
It’s one of the largest SUVs, but not large enough to resist being tossed into a 90-degree spin by a ferocious gust at the height of the storm.
These public servants and all the others who answered desperate calls didn’t have to be out in such high winds, but they put public safety ahead of their own.
District Chief Scott Lunden and Lt. Johan Brockhausen did the same, when they saw a commercial fishing boat being battered as it was wedged between a dock and the shore of the Indian River Lagoon.
Previous observations indicated there might have been people aboard, and that was enough to send the firefighters aboard to check the inside for anyone in need of help, despite their own danger of being tossed overboard or carried out into the churning river if the boat broke loose.
We can give here just a brief look at stories of service by public employees who know more than most of us about selflessness, devotion to duty and the rewards of being the community’s life-saving help in our most trying times.
They deserve or admiration, our thanks, and when it comes time to ensure that they are properly paid and protected, the strongest support of the Space Coast.
They surely have ours.
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