MCW puts skills to use

When tropical storm Irene hit Northfield, Vt., Norwich's Mountain Cold Weather (MCW) team performed rescue and disaster relief, according to Norwich officials.

"I thought it was going to be one of those push-over things," said Benjamin Deschaine, 19, a junior mechanical engineering major from Sabattus, Maine. "I thought of a bad and good scenario and (the results) were a lot worse than my bad scenario."

When MCW volunteered to be on standby during the storm, none of them expected the type of damages that would be caused, according to the team members.

Capt. Geoffrey Farrell, head of MCW, said, "I figured heavy rains, maybe the river would come up a little bit, but I didn't think it would come up that much."

Aware of the advancing storm, MCW took the initiative and "offered their services to be ready if anything happened on campus," Farrell said. Once the flooding got out of hand, the police department called the school requesting help. "Because the MCW guys were on standby they deployed," Farrell said.

When the team arrived on the scene, it witnessed the intensity of the destruction and mayhem. "The roads turned into rivers. There were moving cars, propane tanks, couches, tables, everything," said Mark Siegel, 21, a senior criminal justice major from East Greenbush, N.Y. "Everything that anybody had ever owned was moving down (the river)."

Eric Birr, 21, a senior health sciences and athletic training major from West Babylon, N.Y., said, "(There was) a lot of flooding, (and) a lot of property getting washed away."

The members of the team all witnessed incredible flooding. In some cases the water rose over 10 feet. Debris drifted down the flooded roads and families were stranded.

Birr admits that a majority of the training received through MCW hadn't transferred to the rescue. "In MCW you're kind've taught to take care of high-risk type things."

Farrell reflects upon the different weather situations that the team trains in and said, "(The MCW training) prepares them to operate in really any weather condition that's out there."

Siegel concludes that it wasn't necessarily the tactile training they receive, but rather the mindset they have to maintain in stressful situations. Even though he is a fireman and EMT back home and is used to being in stressful situations he acknowledges that his fellow members adapted well and overcame the stress of the situation. "A lot of it was just keeping your cool under an emergency situation," Deschaine said.

For the actual rescues, the team was separated and focused on different tasks. "Some were evacuating the nursing homes and other areas around Northfield and a couple of us teamed up with water rescue and we started pulling people out of houses that were flooded out," Siegel said.

"We were getting people off porches," Deschaine said, who explained that a lot of people were stranded because their vehicles were washed away or buried. "People were stuck and we were there to help."

Some residents did not react positively to the help.

"There were some people who were pretty hysterical," Siegel recalls. He explains that their hysteria is understandable considering that most of them had just lost everything.           

"(Residents were) pretty grateful for our help. [There were] a couple belligerent and resistful people," said Richard Johnson, 20, junior studies of war and peaces major from Aurora, Ohio.

Siegel said some residents offered boats to the unit, and participated in the evacuations.

After the storm passed, MCW helped clean out houses and buildings. "We helped tear apart houses, ripped up floors, stuff like that," Birr said, who mentioned that they ultimately worked hard to clear out as much muck in houses as possible.

"(MCW) really stepped up when the community needed them and did some really great things and they're continuing to help," Farrell said.