LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Airmen from the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Airlift Wing are transporting medical patients and healthcare providers to and from clinics and hospitals after Winter Storm Fern dumped about 10 inches of snow and ice Jan. 24 and 25, leaving many secondary roads and parking lots impassable with two-wheel-drive vehicles.
More than 50 Kentucky Guard Airmen will remain on duty as long as needed, supplementing hundreds of Kentucky Army Guard soldiers supporting relief efforts statewide, officials said.
Alicia Crawford, a medical-surgical nurse at Norton Hospital Brownsboro in Louisville, is grateful for the help. Large snow drifts and piles of plowed snow blocked egress from her apartment complex in Jeffersontown, Kentucky.
“I would have been stuck for sure,” she said. “There’s no way I would’ve been able to get out.
"We’re needed at work, and staying home is not an option,” she added. “I was really worried about it, so this is great."
Senior Master Sgt. David Curl, a fabrication supervisor in the Kentucky Air Guard’s 123rd Maintenance Squadron, is happy to be part of the state’s response.
“Missions like this help us feel like we’re giving back to the community,” said Curl, who drove Crawford to work this morning with assistance from Tech. Sgt. Brendan Overstreet, a hydraulic systems specialist from the same unit. “That’s the whole reason we volunteer for these kinds of operations. It’s really satisfying to help people in need."
Curl also worked during the state’s response to a massive ice storm in 2009, which led to the largest Guard call-up in state history.
“We went door to door in Hardinsburg conducting wellness checks on people who didn’t have any heat or power,” he said, noting that Guard Airmen identified one family whose members were minutes away from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by an unvented kerosene heater.
“This mission is a little different because we’re staying in Louisville, which is really rewarding,” Curl said. “You get a good feeling out of helping your neighbors.”
Meanwhile, six members of the Kentucky Air Guard’s 123rd Contingency Response Group will be providing support in Southern Kentucky. The Airmen departed Louisville Jan. 26 for Allen and Monroe Counties, where they will serve as liaison officers in local emergency management offices, coordinating military capabilities with civilian support requests.