Hurricane Ike Update #8

Friday, September 12, 2008, 3:33pm

So, we just got back from our second debriefing of the day. Here are the updates:

Facilites--they have officially turned off almost all of the elevators in the hospital. They are still anticipating a loss of power, and they have generators ready. But guess what? The generators are on the first floor! Apparently there are teams that can move the generators if the first floor floods, but all of us residents think it was a stupid idea in the first place to put them on the ground floor!

Food--so, this is becomming an issue. They have assured us that they have enough food (4 times enough food for us for 7 days), but they have started to ration it because it is possible that we might be here for 10-12 days. They are also expecting the first floor kitchen to flood, and since it's electric, we won't be able to use it. So once that happens, we'll then have cold food in the second floor cafeteria, then after that runs out, we'll have hot food which will be cooked on a gas stove/grill.

Patients--we're not really worried about any patients in the hospital just yet. But only half the island has evacuated, leaving about 30,000 people still on the island (aka: 30,000 potential trauma patients). We're anticipating the hospital (aka: trauma bay, aka: me and the other surgery residents) getting very busy tomorrow after the storm goes through and people go outside and start to do stupid things, like climb ladders and try to rescue their belongings, etc. We are also anticipating a lot of people dying though. I don't understand. The last bus left this afternoon, and there are still so many people outside!

Winds--during the debriefing they mentioned what we should expect. Once the winds start around 6pm, and once they get worse around midnight, the winds are going to be so strong and so loud that they sound like "constant thunder." There is also going to be a lot of "wind-driven rain," which can be very dangerous and also loud.

This is a picture of Dr. Callender, the President of UTMB. He's been leading the debriefing. At this debriefing, they were distributing flashlights to every employee.

I just heard on the news that it was recommended that people use a permanent marker and write their name and social security number on their arm. Good to prepare, I guess, but a little morbid.

I'm hoping to get some more pictures, but they might have to be through windows. More later this evening...