Nearly half of the Decker School of Nursing's faculty and staff members contributed to the relief efforts at the Binghamton University Events Center from June 28-July 2.

Twenty-seven people, including 17 nurses, pitched in to help evacuees from severe rain and floods in Greater Binghamton. They joined Red Cross volunteers, first responders and numerous other people from the University community.

“I think anybody who could get here went over there,” said Joyce Ferrario, dean of the Decker School. One faculty member drove to campus from her home in Elmira. Nursing students pitched in for three days.

Ferrario received a call the morning of June 28 from a board member of the Red Cross' Southern Tier Chapter who was looking for nurse practitioners. The first one to go was Mary Anne Condon, associate dean of undergraduate programs.

Condon (shown left assisting flood victim), a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, had joined the Decker School staff just two weeks earlier. “We organized the area for emergency medical treatment and triaged people to be seen,” she said.

Challenges included lining up medications, supplies and equipment to care for the roughly 1,500 people who sought shelter at the peak of the crisis. People needed intravenous antibiotics, oxygen and help with respiratory, mental and mobility issues. In one day, Decker nurses ran 600 blood sugar tests for diabetics. There were pregnant women, babies, dementia patients and many people in wheelchairs.

Although Decker faculty members don't often work together in hospital or clinic settings, they came together quite well during the crisis, Ferrario said.

“Faculty go to so many different hospitals that they learn to adapt very easily,” Condon added.

A school drill in May mirrored quite closely the situation after the heavy rains, so the Decker students and faculty members had recently explored some of the issues that came up. For instance, equipment concerns revealed by the drill helped Decker nurses see what they'd need at the Events Center.

One emergency medical technician speculated that the care was so good that some evacuees would leave in better health than when they arrived. “Given the situation, all of the people were very well taken care of,” Ferrario said. “People spoke very positively to me about the experience. It was a whole University effort.”