Here Comes Ike!

Here's a cut and paste of the email I rec'd:

Hurricane Ike request for Nursing Volunteers

Please read the message below:
Sent: Tue Sep 09 09:53:21 2008
Subject: Immediate Request for Nurses

To All:



As part of the continuing Hurricane Ike response efforts, DSHS currently has an immediate need for nurses. Approximately 50 nurses are needed in San Antonio at the Staging Center no later than 8:00 AM on Wednesday morning. The deployment of the nurses will be for approximate 36-hours. They will be deployed to ride on a coach bus to the Hurricane evacuation area to pick up patients, care for them on the bus ride to a shelter, and then return to San Antonio for demobilization.



If any nurses are interested, please have them contact Patty Melchior at the DSHS MACC, Logistics Section, (512) 532-4950. To confirm who will be deployed to San Antonio, DSHS will need the name of the nurse and their certification number for tracking purposes.



Any assistance that the RACs and nurses can provide would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks.





Ray Apodaca

Texas Department of State Health Services

1100 W. 49th Street

Austin, TX 78756-3199

Austin Office: (512) 458-7111 ext 6790

Austin Fax: (512) 458-7231

I am sure that they would know of other volunteer efforts, if anyone is interested.

tropicwx.com compiles information. Stormpulse takes existing info and puts it in a nice, easy to read deal.

It's going to be 3 or 4 and will hit, according to my best guess (I'm kind of the amateur meterologist in the ICU), Freeport. The models are trending north.

It's too late for this, but I am going to try to remain on this thread as long as possible for notifications post Ike. Thank you.

I work in Austin- during Rita we had a 'sister facility" (owned by the same corp) bring their residents to our facility. Was a bit crazy for a few days, but it worked out. I was off today, but am going to ask tomorrow if the same thing will be happening, and will volunteer to help..

Still praying for you. Have a friend in League City who is pretty concerned. Keep us posted!!

Waiting to see where it goes. I am about 70 miles inland from Houston. Irregardless, we will be on the dirty side of it. How far down on the coast will greatly affect our impact. So far our hospital is in a "stand by" status and need to be ready in an hour's notice. I suspect we may be called into our facility for a mandatory lockdown on Friday a.m. I hope I am wrong. I hate community sleeping quarters (as I found out during Rita). Packing my air mattress and ear plugs...

Stay safe everyone.

Well, according to that site posted earlier, even this hurricane doesn't want to visit my crappy old Rio Grande Valley. I don't blame him.


-Bortaz, sitting 60ish miles West of Brownsville.

This morning's models show a freeport landing, which is worst case scenario for Galveston/Houston.

Thinking of all of you in Ike's way....please stay safe & check in when you can.

For a while they had the eye wall of Ike headed directly towards us. Now it is shifting bit by bit towards Galveston. We are still predicted to get 75-100 mile per hr winds.

Many of our stores are out of gas and the freeway is at a crawl heading toward San Antonio. I imagine it will clear out some and not be the parking lot that Rita was. Most of the deaths from Rita were from evacuees who were basically baking in the heat on the interstate. One guy came to the ER with a temp of 107. It was a total disaster at our facility and surrounding areas- mass chaos. That was such a learning tool for the Houston area.

I will head for the hospital tomorrow with my load of stuff. They have all of Tele staff staying in 2 classrooms. Not big classrooms either! Egad. I will be tired for my shift on Saturday because of lack of sleep from community sleeping quarters with no privacy and worrying about the house and dh (who is stubbornly staying here). Maybe the adrenaline will keep us going- that and coffee! Good thing is that we will have a/c!