Published: October 08, 2009 05:22 pm      

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - Oct. 9

To the Editor:

Sir: Great Library! You have an amazing library in Live Oak!

Needing an interlibrary loan item, as I live in Lee, I visited your library.

What a joy to some 50 students, on a Tuesday afternoon, with their mentors, working on their math and language skills. Not to say, the work being structured on computers, or even learning the game of chess.

The manager, Linda Sanderson, has accumulated a dream team for a staff.

It's a job being well done.

Nelson A. Pryor



To the Editor:

On Oct. 5, 2009 the emergency responders who serve this county preformed remarkable feats of emergency management, control and professionalism. On this rainy afternoon, Suwannee County Fire Rescue received a call to respond to the north end of the county to fight a structure fire. While fire and rescue units were en route to the fire, a second emergency call was received in the 911 dispatch center. This call involved a Suwannee County School bus filled with children. Rescue units were diverted from the structure fire to respond to the bus accident. While the two initial emergencies were occurring, a third, fourth, and then fifth emergency call all came into 911 at the same time. Although resources were beginning to spread beyond the point of being thin, the principle and practice of incident management took control.

Ever since that fateful day in September 2001, the game plan for incident management and response has been refined, instilled and engrained in every emergency service member's mind. In Suwannee County on Monday afternoon, practice made perfect. All of the "what if" plans went into effect in real time and in the real world, on a day when response vulnerability was at its highest level, the Suwannee County 911 Dispatch Center was a bastion of calm and rolled with all of the punches thrown at them. Suwannee County Fire Rescue assigned and reassigned units and personnel to meet the challenges of multiple patients, calls, and responses. The Suwannee County Sheriff's Office and deputies made the team effort seamless, with everyone performing their duty at the highest level.

The actions of your responders reminded me of the two minute drill in football. There was no huddle, just a practiced game plan to get the ball into the end zone. The staff at Shands Live Oak gathered forces and took everything and everyone we threw at them without so much as a whisper of we are getting overloaded. Suwannee County took that ball to the end zone in one play. When the smoke and dust settled, 38 persons had been precautionary transported to the local hospital, one structure fire had been extinguished, one additional vehicle accident victim from a separate accident, and three other general medical patients had all been transported to the local emergency room by ambulance. Suwannee County Fire Rescue did have to call in a player from the bench. Century Ambulance was called to assist with the fourth medical call in the south end of the county. Thank you, Century, for being available and responding without question in our time of need.

I would like to also thank the parents of all of those students for you calmness and understanding. I would like to tell all of the parents that all of students I saw in the staging area of the hospital were well behaved and remarkably calm during this incident. The administrator for Shands Live Oak selflessly purchased pizza for all the students awaiting triage and collection by their parents. School Superintendent Scarborough personally checked on every student in the triage area before meeting with his staff. The school bus staff quickly brought the requested second school bus without any delay. The entire Shands Live Oak staff provided more than medical care; I saw true care and compassion given to many scared students.

Monday, Oct. 5, 2009 made me proud of my County and my fellow emergency responders.

Captain Paul M. Haas

Suwannee County Fire Marshal