I was called into work on Friday as an E1, which is the team that needs to be at the hospital during a disaster.
I had to pack my bags preparing to be stuck at the hospital for a few days. Once there on Friday, the hospital was on "lockdown." They would not let anyone leave.
Our hospital received many patients on Thursday from St. Johns which is on the Gulf and let me tell you, that was a huge mess! The patients came with no orders, just a few records from their charts. Many of the pts were unable to speak, which made the admission process very difficult. They were the sickest of the pts from St Johns as the ones that were somewhat "well" were sent home or evacuated with family members.
Some staff from St. Johns came to our Hospital to help. What a help! They were under a mandatory evacuation, so many had no other place to evacuate to.
Friday after my shift the power went out & we were on generator backup at the hostpital. People slept all over the hospital... wherever they could find a place. I ended up sleeping in a doctor's office. I brought my air mattress which went flat in the middle of the night, so I ended up sleeping on my body pillow. I was SO GLAD I brought that! We had no air conditioning for most of the night either & it was miserable! I had a really hard time falling asleep but finally did probably around midnight or so.
At 1am Steve called. We had prepared at the house. We had enough food to feed 10 people for weeks:) We decreased the air to 62 in case the power went out, filled the bath tubs with water, had a lot of bottled water, ice, coolers, etc. We were prepared. Chad & Lizzy came over. I guess Lizzy slept in my closet since there were no windows there:) Oh, I left the camera for Steve to take pics...but he didn't even take 1 single picture!
At 1am, I got up to see what it was like outside. The wind was terrible! I couldn't believe it! The worse was yet to come. I was so tired so I went back to bed, unsure if I was needed to work the next day. I had already worked 4 days and wasn't scheduled until Monday.
Saturday I got up early for work, and of course was on the schedule. What a miserable day! We had no air, no water supply, no ice for the patients, no tv for the patients. The rooms were leaking so we had to move pts. Also ER was beginning to fill up. What a disaster! By the end of the shift we had light & cool air. We were also allowed to leave. I was so excited because we were originally told we couldn't leave until Sunday or Monday. Whoohooo!
I called Steve & he said we didn't have power at the house all day, however, by the time I got home...we had power!!! YEAH!
I just got back from driving around my neighborhood. I noticed mostly fallen trees, fences blown down, street signs knocked over, & shingles blown off roofs. There were a lot of people working in their yards gathering up the debris.
I am trying to relax today. I already have to work Monday & Tuesday. The schools around here will be cancelled for a few days. Most businesses are still closed as well. I just heard on the radio that 19% of the households in the Houston area have power. I feel very lucky to be in that 19%!
Many gas station have no gas, but most don't even have power. I'm really glad we filled up both vehicles before the hurricane. I feel very lucky to have a home, power, our vehicles, and everything! After watching the news & reading the paper it could have been a lot worse for us.
1 comment:
Sorry you got stuck at work. They treated me like an E2 (I was supposed to be E1, but never got the call) since I was on the schedule for Sunday anyway. Hopefully it won't take too long for Katy to recover! Glad you guys have power and cool air!
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