248 pp., 52 b&w photos, 3 tables, 4 maps, index
    $22.95 paperback, $39.95 hardcover
     Add Cloth to cart
     Add Paper to cart

Ken Mullen is chief of the Rocky Mount Fire Department. He and his crews had prepared for Hurricane Floyd, but they could never have anticipated the dramatic flooding that swept their city or the overwhelming number of calls for help they received. With great creativity and courage, the city's firefighters rescued countless people trapped by the flood. Chief Mullen was interviewed at his Rocky Mount headquarters in June 2002.

"We've got nine people here in the fire department that lost their homes. And those guys continued to stay here and work. They'd go home and make sure their families were out, and then they'd come back, knowing that they were losing everything they had. We had guys out operating front-end loaders trying to get some people who were on top of cars, and everybody just pitched in. I do classify our people as heroes in public safety, but I think you've got to also look at what ordinary citizens and other city employees did. We obviously couldn't have done it by ourselves. Everybody pulled together. It was a time when you didn't see any turf battles. Our secretaries came in and worked our phone banks, and they didn't know anything about public safety. You should have heard some of their phone conversations with those people. A lot of people just wanted somebody to talk to. You heard a lot of 'I'm scared to death here.' I think I'd have to call them all heroes."