One by one the calls for help came in.
“So, we're going to go to Good Sam,” Abbott says after getting off the radio with dispatch asking for a 5:30 pick-up. And we were off.
Lt. Robbie Abbott and I headed to Good Samaritan Hospital to pick up an employee who works in food services. She had been staying at a hotel since the storm first hit on Sunday and was ready to go home to her family. One problem is no transportation. That's where the sheriff's department stepped in.
“It's so helpful. Like, I was kind of stressing on how to get home. I know my husband said that the, the roads aren't clear, and I can't drive. And my car's been broken down for a couple of months. So, this is just, it really does help out.”
The winter care program was set up to transport essential workers to and from their jobs, patients to crucial appointments, and pick up critical medications for anyone who is stranded.
There's a lot of different needs in the community when the storm hits, and that's either, you know, like, we've picked up insulin for people who are diabetic that need that. It's essential. We take doctors and nurses. I've taken people to their dialysis appointments that couldn't miss. I had a mother that is expecting to deliver a baby in the next two days. So, we got her in there today. And then we have, you know, postal workers, all essential people that have to work. So we take care of all that.”
Scooter Stein, spokesman for the Fayette County Sheriff's Department, says hundreds of calls for help came in on Monday and Tuesday.
