Chatham Emergency Services responds to 300+ calls during winter storm

SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - When the snow started to fall all over Southeast Georgia, Chatham Emergency Services were ready for a spike in calls.

Now that the snow days are finally over, the CEO is reflecting on his department's response to the surge in emergency calls.

"We put our emergency action plan into place," said Chuck Kearns of Chatham Emergency Services. "We brought in additional staffing and we had managers out in SUV responding to calls also with fire and EMS."

"While every department responded to help drivers who spun out, Chatham emergency specifically responded to 72 calls for crashes, including a woman who was pinned upside down," Kearns said.

"The car hit a tree, then went down in a ditch, then overturned and the roof collapsed," said Kearns. "It was extremely difficult to get her out of the car."

Chatham Emergency says Jan. 3 was one of the busiest days in its history including more than 300 calls and a train derailment with hundreds of passengers on board.  The department also saw a huge spike in trauma calls because of people falling.

"People coming down exterior stairs that were covered in ice, people just walking outside and slipping and falling," Kearns said. "We've had lots of broken bones, lots of broken wrists and broken ankles the last couple of days."

Kearns says that overall he is pleased with the department's response.

"We were busy, but we suffered no losses, none of our employees or volunteers were injured," said Kearns. "All in all we were pretty pleased with the way we handled it."

Copyright 2018 WTOC. All rights reserved.