hurricane heroes

First responders are heroes. I read, give thanks, and pray for God's blessing on these people as well as on all those who needed their help.

In NYC, at least fifty homes burned.  Two hundred firefighters were fighting it in high winds and flooded streets. I can't imagine the conditions.  NYFD has certainly had their share of heroes in the past decade or so. I wonder if any of these also worked at Ground Zero after 9/11.
With chest-high water from the storm filling the street, firefighters had to use a boat to make rescues, the Associated Press reported. Fire department officials said about 25 people were trapped in the upstairs unit of one apartment, and the two-story home next door was ablaze and setting fire to the apartment’s roof. Firefighters climbed an awning to rescue the trapped people and took them downstairs to a boat in the street.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/30/14797289-50-homes-destroyed-as-six-alarm-blaze-rips-through-queens?lite

Further south, a replica of a tall ship went down in the storm. Fourteen of sixteen were rescued by a team with a helicopter.  I gather the Coast Guard swimmer swam in 10-30 foot waves  to carry each one to safety from the rafts to the dangling line.



And here's another set of heroes:
http://www.wcvb.com/health/Hospital-staff-carries-babies-9-flights-after-outage/-/9848730/17188806/-/110jj2z/-/index.html?absolute=true
(CNN) — At times with only flashlights to illuminate the way, NYU Langone Medical Center was evacuating some 260 patients, carrying some of them down 15 flights of stairs to awaiting ambulances ready to take them to the safety of other hospitals.
NYU didn't anticipate such heavy flooding from Sandy, the superstorm that hit Monday, and chose not to evacuate all its patients before the storm, as they did with Hurricane Irene a year ago. But between 7 and 7:45 p.m. Monday, the hospital's basement, lower floors, and elevator shafts filled with 10 to 12 feet of water, and the hospital lost its power, according to Dr. Andrew Brotman, senior vice president and vice dean for clinical affairs and strategy. "Things went downhill very, very rapidly and very unexpectedly," he said. "The flooding was just unprecedented." Emergency generators did kick in, but two hours later, about 90% of that power went out, and the hospital decided to evacuate. By 1:30 a.m., about half the patients had been evacuated, including all the patients in the adult, pediatric, and newborn intensive care units. Brotman said he anticipated the evacuation would last until around 6:30 a.m.

Four of the newborns were on respirators that were breathing for them, and when the power went out, each baby was carried down nine flights of stairs while a nurse manually squeezed a bag to deliver air to the baby's lungs.

Read more: http://www.wcvb.com/health/Hospital-staff-carries-babies-9-flights-after-outage/-/9848730/17188806/-/110jj2z/-/index.html#ixzz2AmpBSfUC

Praise God for all those who risk their lives for others.  Greater love has no one than this...