If you have a heart attack in Harlowe, according to resident and former firefighter Rufus Carter, you are in serious trouble: it’s going to take the ambulance an average of 18 minutes and 22 seconds to get there. If you live in nearby Adams Creek, the response time is even longer.
That’s the longest average response time for EMS in the county by nine and a half minutes (in Fort Barnwell) and nearly 11 minutes longer than the county’s quickest (Township 7).
While the Harlowe and Adams Creek community has its own fire department, it must rely on Havelock EMS for ambulance calls. Many in the community think its time for that change.
“EMS is needed here,” Carter, one resident leading the push, said.
He said the county commissioners have been reluctant to raise the community’s taxes to cover a local EMS base – “It would raise the taxes up from 1 to 5 cents,” he believes – but he feels that wouldn’t matter. “What’s more important? A life, or raising the tax?"