Less than 24 hours after they arrived back in Gaffney early Tuesday morning from a more than week-long deployment to Louisiana for Hurricane Gustav, a group of paramedics from Gaffney and Spartanburg were called back into service, this time for Hurricane Ike.

Ten paramedics from American TransMed ambulance service left for Louisiana two weeks ago in advance of Gustav to help evacuate patients and other vulnerable members of society out of the Lafayette region. Later, after Gustav passed, the local paramedics were sent to New Orleans to assist with any emergency calls as evacuated residents began their return.

Brian Lawson, director of operations for Gaffney-based American TransMed, said the crews returned from Louisiana at about 2 a.m. on Tuesday. At 2:30 p.m. the same day, American TransMed received word from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that paramedics would once again be needed, but in San Antonio, Texas, because of Hurricane Ike.

This time, 14 paramedics were sent in seven ambulances, five of which were equipped for advanced life support and two were equipped for basic life support. Of the 10 paramedics who made the trip to Louisiana, Lawson said seven made the return trip south to Texas. From the time of FEMA's call, the ambulance workers had 24-hours to reach their destination and they were at a staging area in San Antonio on Wednesday. They already were busy on Thursday, evacuating hospitals in the Galveston area.

Lawson said American TransMed had debated keeping its crews in the south knowing they likely would be needed for Hurricane Ike, but decided against it since it was initially believed FEMA wouldn't make such a call until at least Thursday. When FEMA called, Lawson said, "They were asking for more trucks."

Lawson wasn't sure if more trucks were needed because so many resources may have been exhausted after the first hurricane response.

Hurricane Ike was a category 2 hurricane as of Thursday afternoon. Hurricane conditions were expected to batter the northwest corner of the Gulf of Mexico by late Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center.