Hurricane Ike Update #13

Friday, September 12, 2008, 11:24pm

So, we are just about in the eye of the storm, and things are starting to get messy. A couple of us residents walked across the bridge between the main hospital and the Shriner's Burns Hospital, and it was quite frightening to look down and see Market Street completely submerged, flowing like a river (mind you, this is the street I live on). That's me on the left, Sara Johnson (PGY III), and Mo Bayasi (PGY II).

I started to freak out to my dad on the phone, worrying about where I'm going to live and what I do if my apartment gets flooded (I mean, I'm from Ohio, what do I know about the treatment of salt-water-saturated furniture?). But, my dad calmed me down and assured me that I can't worry about that now, I'm going to be saving lives. Right.

Because we are running on generator power, that doesn't include air conditioning, so it is starting to get very hot. This also means that the walls and floors are getting condensation on them, and the Operating Rooms are actually having to be evacuated (see picture). In addition, things from the first floor are having to be moved already (see picture) because there is water coming into the first floor (the basement is already flooded).

As for the sleeping arrangement, luckily, us trauma surgery residents can sleep in the delectible call room that I mentioned earlier. But everyone else--nurses, radiology techs, other docs--are having to sleep in patient rooms, ER beds, etc. As you can see in the picture, it gets a little tight trying to find places for 500 employees to sleep (shh-they don't know I took this picture!).

More in a second, I'm off to get more video...