'We were his seat belt': Volunteer EMTs save dad, boy in daring rescue on flooded Appalachian Trail

Two young volunteer EMTs, 20 and 17, spent several terrifying hours Sunday along the Appalachian Trail. They were treating two severely injured hikers, a father and his 10-year-old son. They had no access to advanced life support equipment or paramedics. Roads and trails washed out before their eyes. And they were soaked to the bone.

Allison Spong and Vincent Orfini, volunteer EMTs with Stony Point Ambulance Corps of Stony Point, New York, were intent on supporting their patients and getting them off the Bear Mountain State Park trail. No small task, as torrential rains continued to cause havoc.

"He was a patient who needed care," said Spong, 20, who was assigned to the boy. He was in shock and had extensive bleeding from a head wound. "He was such a small child." She had him use a pain chart with faces that expressed levels of discomfort, and thumbs up and thumbs down, to express his condition. She held his hand almost the entire time.

It wasn't until hours later that Spong and Orfini reflected on what they had endured. Both had been in precarious situations while on the mountain.

Spong woke up scared Monday morning, knowing what she had been through, even though she hadn't been fearful while in the thick of the storm. She knew that she's trained for tricky rescues. "We were able to figure it out."

The Dominican University nursing student added: "I had a great team around me."

Orfino, who turned 18 just days after the rescue, stayed with his patient, the father, on the side of a slippery, rain-soaked mountain. The 2023 North Rockland High School graduate starts University of New Haven this fall, planning to study fire science. "If I had to do it again, I wouldn't think twice."

What happened that day

The call came in around 3:20 p.m. Sunday, said Evan Humphrey, the ambulance corps' training officer who was incident commander. They went out with eight crew members and three vehicles: Humphrey's personal SUV and two rigs.

Humphrey got to the top of Perkins Memorial Drive first. He realized the gravity of the situation quickly. "Conditions were deteriorating rapidly," said Humphrey. "(Water) was up to the door handle on my car."

But the ambulances were needed at the top of the road. The road was crumbling as the rain came down. Boulders were falling off the mountain.

It appeared that the father and son, Bronx residents on a day hike, had been swept off the trail. The father broke his son's fall, saving the young boy from worse injuries.

The 10-year-old was brought up first, carried for nearly 2 miles in the arms of Thiells Fire Department 2nd Assistant Chief Jeff Kahn.

Spong and EMT Lt. Gianna Punzi took him. The boy was assessed to be in critical condition.

Stony Point Fire Department and the Thiells FD dive team had responded to the Bear Mountain incident.

Then Thiells Fire Department and Orfini headed down to the dad, using a rope system to secure everyone as they climbed. He was in much worse shape; rescuers found him 50-100 feet down the mountain from the trail.

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'We were his seatbelt'

Communication with any injured patient wouldn't be easy under the circumstances, Orfini said, but the father was in shock, had severe injuries consistent with a fall and spoke limited English.

Road conditions worsened. Humphrey had to figure out how to evacuate patients in conditions the ambulance rigs couldn't handle while keeping his EMTS safe.

They decided to truck out the boy on a mattress in the back cab of a state parks police pickup.

Spong went with him. She rode, unrestrained, on a road that was cratering by the minute, holding onto the boy. "We were his seat belt," she said.

Stony Point handed off the boy to Peekskill and Cortlandt first responders, who took him to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla.

It would take hours to secure the father and get him to transportation before he rain eased. Orfini stuck by his side, working to stabilize him without access to more advanced equipment or a paramedic.

Then they found others needing help

The 10-year-old and father were with four others, all Bronx residents who had come up for a day hike in the nearby state park. The others were uninjured but needed to get to safety.

The rest of the first responders were going to take them out.

Then the crew ran into nine Appalachian Trail thru-hikers. They were fine but were trapped in the park.

The day hikers and thru-hikers were loaded into first responder vehicles that joined a caravan back to Rockland.

Along the way, they came across a Woodbury firetruck and ambulance, along with state police, trying to rescue about 40 people whose vehicles were stranded in flood waters at the Long Mountain Circle. Stony Point and Thiells firefighters donned wetsuits and swift-water gear. The Stony Point EMTs assessed all the families on scene; everyone was relatively fine.

Humphrey, who carries snacks in his vehicle for incident responses, gave out granola bars and Gatorade to the people who had been stranded, some for hours.

The Stony Point and Thiells crews continued the caravan toward home, following a circuitous path to avoid closures: They headed over the Bear Mountain Bridge, up Route 9D into Putnam County, down Route 9 to the Cuomo/Tappan Zee Bridge.

They dropped off the hikers at the West Gate Inn in Nyack, then headed home.

In the end, all hikers accounted for

Meanwhile, as this all went on, the ambulance corps' hometown was flooding. Piermont's dive team headed up to Eccher Park off Lowland Drive to help evacuate two homes nearby.

Haverstraw, Nanuet and Spring Hill Ambulance Corps helped with coverage and supplies.

"We could not have been better supported by our Rockland County neighbors," said SPAC Captain John Waite.

While the Stony Point crews were wading in the water on Bear Mountain, their building on Route 9W flooded. Board and auxiliary members worked to mop up that mess.

The crews that responded to Bear Mountain State Park got back around 10:30 p.m. Cleanup and restocking of their rigs took a couple more hours.

Photos: Extreme flooding in New York's Hudson Valley that left 1 dead, several missing

Waite said all his crew — Humphrey, Spong, Orfini, Tara Bertolino, William Delahanty and Darren Cupo — are volunteers, as are the firefighters that responded, and are highly trained for whatever crisis comes their way.

The only change Waite foresees for next time: He hopes the corps can get an all-terrain vehicle that's big enough to transport patients in such rough conditions.

Joshua Laird, executive director of the Palisades Interstate Parks Commission, said New York State Police and state park police are the first line of defense in the parks. But local first responders, especially from Stony Point, Fort Montgomery and Tuxedo, are often tapped for emergencies in Harriman and Bear Mountain state parks.

"It was chaotic," Laird said on July 9. "At the end of the storm, hikers were all accounted for. It's a pretty good success story for the coordination."

Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy for lohud.com and the USA Today Network New York. Reach her at ncutler@lohud.com; follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Threads at @nancyrockland.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Daring Appalachian Trail rescue during flooding saves father, son