VALPARAISO - A local integrated health care company is sending ambulances to an area Hurricane Dorian is expected to effect. Ron Donahue, CEO of inHealth Ambulance, which has bases in Lake, Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph Counties, says going to storm ravaged areas is part of his business.
"We have a partnership with FEMA and AMR and any kind of natural disaster that happens around the country we typically get called upon to send ambulances to," Donahue says. "This will be our fourth hurricane in three years that we've gone to."
Donahue says the company was called last Thursday and put on-alert that it might be deployed. At that point inHealth leaders worked to get volunteer staffers who were willing to go.
"I mean they get paid but they are going to be gone up to two weeks away from their families and it's a pretty big commitment to drop everything and go," Donahue says. "So about 2:30 or 3:00 this morning we've got the call that they have made the decision to send resources down there in preparation for the hurricane. They are expecting it to be pretty bad."
The company had about four hours to get the associates ready for the trip. Donahue says four staffers are going to Georgia in two ambulances. Once they get there, they will be deployed to wherever FEMA officials think the hurricane will make landfall.
