News

Flash flooding thrusts medical Reservists into Montana state emergency

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Grant Saylor
  • 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. --  Senior Master Sgt. Dorothy "Dot" Thordarson's recent annual tour to Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana was anything but routine. It reads like something out of a Discovery Channel survival show.

"We arrived on a Saturday, and on Sunday the reservation was hit with four inches of rain in just three hours," said Sergeant Thordarson, the 446th Aerospace Medicine Squadron assistant superintendent of aerospace medicine.

The flash flooding caused major damage. All the roads leading to the reservation were washed out, and a hillside under the reservation's state-of-the-art health clinic shifted as a result of the floodwaters, causing the clinic to sink approximately eight inches.

Not exactly the routine medical training and support mission Sergeant Thordarson and 12 of her fellow Reservists in the 446th AMDS were expecting when they set out in mid-June to help serve members of the Rocky Boy's Chippewa Cree Tribe.

Tribal officials at the clinic asked the Reservists for help, but with all roads cut off, the only way to transport the Reservists to the reservation was by ATV, tackling mud bogs and monster hills along the way.

"My driver said 'lean into the hill,' and we went for it," said Sergeant Thordarson.

Once there, the medical professionals formed a bucket brigade, battling the elements to evacuate supplies from the damaged clinic to a makeshift clinic.

"We were in emergency management mode," said Master Sgt. John Krakenberg, 446 AMDS. "We directed patient care, triaged, loaded trucks to transport supplies, a couple of us pulled graveyard shift security... whatever they needed, we jumped right in into a support role."

Lt. Col. George Gonzalez, a staff dentist with the 446th AMDS and the OIC for the annual tour, said despite the mayhem, the Reservists accomplished the work they set out to do.

"It was an exercise in flexibility for sure," he said.

Colonel Gonzalez along with Lt. Col. Robert Juhl, 446th AMDS assistant chief of dental services, provided more than 100 screenings to Rocky Boy school children, plus dozens of oral exams, extractions and other procedures for members of the tribe.
Medical Reservists from the squadron worked tirelessly to fill more than 2,800 prescriptions during the two-week tour. They also developed a continuity binder to assist future incoming medical squadrons.

The flood damage at Rocky Boy Reservation was so severe that Montana's governor declared a state of emergency after seeing the damage that left more than 200 homes without drinking water and about 500 housing units with water damage. Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrived to assess the damage and request federal funding, and President Obama signed a presidential disaster declaration on July 10, making federal money available to state and local governments for emergency work and repairs.

Members of the tribe were so grateful for the services provided by the 446th AMDS that the tribal elder invited the Reservists to attend their sacred "Sundance" ceremony, in which tribal members culminate four days and nights of fasting with a celebration of prayer.

"Their thanks is already in our hearts," said Sergeant Thordarson. "Our reward is we were able to provide care when it was urgently needed. It's what we do."