Thursday, September 8, 2005

4 from S.P. ready to go

Published in the Current

SOUTH PORTLAND (Sep 8, 2005): Four firefighter-paramedics with the South Portland Fire Department are ready to head to the Gulf Coast as part of a 20-member team from Maine.

"We're just waiting for a phone call," said Fire Chief Kevin Guimond. "I wish we could offer more people, but we've still got to cover the city."

Guimond said he and others in the department have also been working the last two days to set up a shelter in Maine for evacuees, but it now looks like they will not get this far, he said.

Lynette Miller of the Maine Emergency Management Agency said South Portland is one place a statewide task force is considering as a possible site for meeting up with evacuees to find out what they need and sending them elsewhere in the state.

She said federal agencies have halted "mass relocations" out of the disaster-affected area, citing evacuees' unwillingness to go so far from home.