TAMPA - At 5:40 a.m., Hillsborough County Emergency Operations spokeswoman Holley Wade's pager vibrated. She slept through it, but was awakened 30 minutes later by her husband, Tampa Fire Rescue spokesman Capt. Bill Wade.
"Honey," he said, "did you know 100 people are going to be transported to Tampa International Airport at 10 a.m.?"
Like many other rescue workers from around the Tampa Bay area, the couple sprang into action. News like this had been anticipated since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and now two giant C-17 military transports were to arrive in Tampa from Baton Rouge, La. Each would carry up to 50 patients in serious to critical condition.
As many as 135 medical and rescue workers rushed to set up a triage in a Tampa International Airport hangar.
Twelve rescue vehicles, 19 ambulances, five firetrucks and some HartLine buses stood by. Hospitals all over the county, as well as ones in Pinellas, Polk, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota counties, prepared beds and stations. They were ready to treat anything from cancer patients to head injuries to dehydration.
By 10 a.m., they all were told there would be no transport or patients. Then there would be. Then it was coming at 2 p.m. Then they heard it was in the air at 6. By 7:30, they got another update. The patients wouldn't arrive until midnight.
As the night wore on word came that the flights would arrive at 10:30 p.m., and then 10:45 p.m.
Everyone waited.
"What they really, really need over there is good communication," Bill Wade said. "(Louisiana rescue workers') modes of communicating with us right now are spotty, at best.
"I just keep sending back the same message: Tampa Bay is ready to help. Just tell us when."
It was the first time such an operation would be carried out by Tampa Bay's emergency rescue squads, but most seemed confident they would handle it just fine. Drills simulating similar emergencies, usually involving local high school students and fake blood, are practiced every year.
"This will be similar to that," said Tampa Fire Rescue Lt. Tim Hayes as he waited Saturday night. "Except (the patients) will already be assessed by the military. We'll just reassess them, and then our goal is to get them to their final destination."
While Tampa Bay area paramedics and hospital workers had most of the day and night to prepare for the patients' arrivals, details about what exactly they'd be getting were vague and seemed to change by the hour.
"First there are two planes, then there is one plane," Tampa General Hospital spokesman John Dunn said early Saturday afternoon. "We've turned our minor emergency center into a receiving point for these patients coming in and we have staff coming by. We'll just wait and see what happens."
Dr. Dean Christensen of Plant City's South Florida Baptist Hospital was one of the on-site medical workers. He thought he had a good idea of what he would see when the patients arrive.
He and his wife, Madeleine, treated victims of Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and spent five days in India after last year's tsunami disaster.
"I think we'll have a lot of dehydration, infections, maybe some cardiac arrest," Christensen said. "And a lot of psychological trauma. Everyone will have that, including the people (on the airplane) bringing them to us."
Red Cross volunteers were ready to usher family members of the patients into a small room where they would be given food, water and counseling if needed. After that, they were to be put on buses to the First United Methodist Church in Tarpon Springs where they could wait for word on where each patient was being treated.
"Nationally, the Red Cross has never dealt with anything like this," said the Tampa Bay Chapter Red Cross spokesman Tim Teahan.
By 10:15 p.m., rescue workers were still waiting, still wondering what they would be facing once the jet landed. Wade predicted it wouldn't be anything they couldn't handle.
"There are probably several hundred people activated and in place to help with this operation," he said.
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