Hurricane Ike Update #18

Sunday, September 14, 2008, 10:51 am

So, the other residents and I decided to venture out individually to our homes, then we're going to reconvene after lunch to walk around the island some. Sorry for the delay in island damage pictures, and the ones I did upload are not in order, since I had to upload so many.

As for my apartment, I have minimal damage. You can see in some of the pictures above that there was quite a few trees blown down and debris. You can also see the water level on the side of my apartment building, and I live on the second floor, with the Xs on the sliding glass door. I had to step over a lot of debris to get up the stairs to my apartment. I did have some water come in under the front door, likely due the "wind-drive rain," but luckily my rug stopped most of it, and none of the water got on my carpet. I think my sliding glass door came off it's track as well, since some of the blinds got knocked down. The parking area of my apartment is nasty and covered in mud as well. While I was there I did snag some more clothes and some canned food. I didn't have the energy to tackle the refridgerator and whatever is growing inside of it...(by the way, I am kind of annoyed that at some point I'm going to have to make my way to the grocery store and restock my entire refridgerator--condiments and all).

Outside the hospital is mostly just wet, muddy, and covered in debris. You can see a huge tree blocking the sidewalk I usually take to work!

Apparently they are also bringing in some De-mat people--I don't know what that stands for, but apparently they are like mobile healthcare people, that set up tents and can take some of the pressure off the ER.

I also wanted to comment on some of the feelings of the residents at this time. One, regarding the people coming to the hospital for help: it's a little frustrating. When I went down to the ER for the first time yesterday, I was just overwhelmed with feelings of annoyance, and almost anger. I mean, these people had the opportunity to leave the island, even the transportation was provided for them, and they refused. There have even been some people bringing their children with them to the ER. You can endanger your own life, but don't endanger your children's lives just because you're stubborn. I mean, these injuries could have been prevented.

Also, we're not really sure what we're doing here, as far as us surgery residents. Like I mentioned before, we're not going to do surgery and we're not going to suture up any lacerations...so we're just waiting around in this hot, stinky, dark hospital. We are in no way capable of taking care of patients at UTMB at this point, except for some minor cuts and scrapes, so why are they making us stay? To quote George Costanza, "the residents are getting frustrated!!!"

Although I have to say once again thank you a million times over for everyone who is posting and calling and texting and sending their thoughts and prayers. Every post I get I share with the other surgery residents, and it brings us relief daily to know that we are not forgotten. I feel truly blessed to--literally--have people all over the country thinking about and praying for us. I especially feel blessed that my apartment is still standing and livable. I'm afraid that some of the other residents may not be so lucky, and I may have a couple new roommates for a while if worse comes to worse...