BENTON, IL- (Holly Kee- Benton News. Please Click on the link above to read the full story. Here is an excerpt below.)
An organized reaction by first responders, community members and local organizations helped to smooth the evacuation of nearly 90 patients and staff after Sunday’s bomb threats to Franklin Hospital in Benton, but the cost to taxpayers and businesses is still being tallied.
As hospital patients and elderly people living at Helia Healthcare were evacuated and a special team was combing the hospital for explosives, police blocked off the general area. Three businesses had no choice but to close: Huck’s Convenience Store; the Dairy Queen and Fred’s.
“When something like this happens,” Benton Fire Chief Shane Cockrum said Monday, “you find out how great our community is and how they come together.”
Benton Mayor Fred Kondritz, who spent the evening at St. Joseph Catholic Church, where patients and seniors were temporarily housed, said everybody did an outstanding job.
“I’m very proud of our first responders,” he said.
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.