Southern Charles County was hit hardest by Thursday’s thunderstorms.
Deputy Chief Stephen Shifflett of Newberg VFD Station 14 told The Bay Net that the weather kept 20 of his volunteers steadily busy clearing downed trees from roadways and houses; extinguishing transformer & brush fires, and clearing downed power lines.
“The weather was terrible down here. You could hear and see the wind whipping the trees around like toothpicks. It snapped them like nothing,” Shifflett told The Bay Net. “And the rain made it next to zero visibility.”
The Clifton on the Potomac neighborhood was hardest hit; Nanjemoy is hurting, too. One person was med-evac’d out for a very serious hand injury. No VFD personnel were injured.
The bulk of the calls came between 3 and 8 p.m. However, they continued to receive a steady but less intense stream of calls through the night and morning Friday.
Newburg 14 handled 50 calls, so many that even with assistance of other local stations, they weren’t able to investigate any of the incidents. They could only get things cleaned up as quickly and safely as possible in anticipation of the next call.
Shifflett asked The Bay Net to express his thanks to all his station members for their turn out and hard work during the storm. He was also impressed with the excellent work performed by the Charles County Communications Division (911 call center).
Shifflett is particularly thankful for all the personnel from the all other stations who turned out to handle the call load; and for the Cobb Island Auxiliary who kept everyone fed so the volunteers could keep working.
In the middle of Thursday’s violent storm, the Marbury 10th District Fireboat 8 was dispatched to answer a distress call routed through the U.S. Coast Guard.
About 3 p.m., Boat 8 and Nanjemoy VFD Boat 4 were launched to find a civilian boat taking on water at a vague location in a 12 mile search area on the Potomac River between Quantico Naval Base and Pope’s Creek. Boats from Quantico and Potomac Heights joined the search.
After nearly 30 minutes, dispatch came back on the radio with a clear location. A large recreational boat was sinking in the area of Fairview Beach near the King George County shore. Four passengers had been onboard.
Marbury Deputy Chief Danny Hudson told The Bay Net that it only took the volunteers 45 seconds to find the vessel after they received the clarified location.
At the scene, Hudson told The Bay Net, the volunteers found a second civilian boat helping the passengers of the first. They had rescued two passengers, who were onboard. One man still clung to the wreckage and another was in the water.
The Marbury boat rescued one while Nanjemoy got the other. Hudson said only 4 feet at the tip of the distressed boat’s bow remained above water by the time all four of its passengers were safely aboard Marbury Boat 8 and leaving the area. The stern rested on the bottom of the river.
Details about the cause of the boat’s distress are still unclear. But, it is certain that the storm’s sudden arrival and the horribly choppy water contributed to the flooding and sinking of the boat before it could get to safe harbor.
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