COSHOCTON − Janet Lawrence was part of the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in 2005. Now retired from Coshocton County Emergency Medical Services, what she recalls the most is how positive the people of New Orleans remained and how nice they were to those trying to help.
It was one of the most devastating hurricanes to ever strike the United States, ravaging New Orleans. Help for those impacted came from all over the country, including Coshocton.
“The people in the area were always giving us the thumb’s up. We met a lot of interesting people and they treated us like we were royalty,” Lawrence recalled. “The people were just amazing. All the devastation they just went through and they could still smile and wave at you, or thank you for helping out.”
Todd Shroyer, Janet Lawrence and Keith Shriver were three members of Coshocton County Emergency Medical Services who went to Louisiana to assist with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in 2005.
Todd Shroyer, director of Coshocton County Emergency Medical Services, said one ambulance from Coshocton was sent to Louisiana following the hurricane. It was part of a task force of first responders from across the U.S. based out of the Jimmy Swaggart Ministries Campus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Shroyer said since paramedics at the time worked part time, with most having other full-time jobs, volunteers went down in teams of three over five weeks. Each team stayed for a week. Shroyer was part of the second team, with Lawrence and Dee Schuler.
Homes devastated by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana in 2005. Crews from Coshocton County Emergency Medical Services helped with relief efforts.
“I’m really happy and proud to have been part of a crew that went down to help, because it was heartbreaking and devastating. When you come home, you think ‘I’m not going to complain about that, because it’s a piddly little thing.’ It changed my outlook on so many things,” Lawrence confided.
Shroyer said the Coshocton crews were adopted by Grace Presbyterian Church, a small congregation in Baton Rouge, who provided them with food and a place to sleep and shower.
He said the last team had to rush home to beat Hurricane Rita. The category 5 storm struck the Louisiana and Texas border just about a month after Katrina.
“It was literally making landfall as they were leaving Louisiana,” Shroyer said.
Dee Schuler, then of Coshocton County Emergency Medical Services, is shown with a dog discovered during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. The local EMS sent five crews over five weeks down to assist with relief efforts.
Shroyer, Lawrence and Schuler took supplies to the Plaquemines Parish and other areas and did some support work in New Orleans. Another team was deployed to the Superdome where victims were being housed and another worked with a doctor administering vaccinations in Lafayette Parish. Keith Shriver was part of that team.
“It was an area that needed help and they were calling for help from everybody,” Shriver said of taking part. “It was not only an experience seeing how the government reacts in a major crisis like that, but just seeing the outpouring of everybody else who were there.”
It wasn’t the only time first responders from Coshocton County went to the region. They also assisted following Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike in 2008. Shroyer said officials were a bit better prepared those times, having learned lessons from Katrina.
This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: Coshocton County volunteers recall helping victims of Katrina