Nurse from New Orleans hospitals that were not evacuated at first

suzanne4, RN · Sep 5, 2005

Charity was the last hospital to be evacuated and that was completed today.

Not sure about any of the nurses that were there until the end. They had no power, you could see medics hand-bagging the patients in the ICU that they were showing on television the other night.

nrse4alongtime · Sep 5, 2005

Hi, does anyone know nurses from the hospitals that did not evacuate early?? How are they doing???
Does anyone know where the backup generators where located that went down during the flooding??
Mine are on the ground level, but would hope those were up higher.
Lee RN

Some of the generators were on the ground floors. Others were on the roof. There were several issues: flooding, diesel fuel available and one of the roof top units collapsed through the ceiling. Probably related to roof damage from the storm. Most hospitals underestimate how much diesel fuel it takes to run their generator at full capacity for 24 hours. Also most hospitals do not have chillers (which power the AC) on generators. Hospitals who have gone through this before know their average daily usage of fill and attempt to procure several weeks worth prior to the storm. In addition, if you can get just some of your chillers on generator, you can keep your critical areas reasonably cool.

lee1 · Sep 5, 2005

Some of the generators were on the ground floors. Others were on the roof. There were several issues: flooding, diesel fuel available and one of the roof top units collapsed through the ceiling. Probably related to roof damage from the storm. Most hospitals underestimate how much diesel fuel it takes to run their generator at full capacity for 24 hours. Also most hospitals do not have chillers (which power the AC) on generators. Hospitals who have gone through this before know their average daily usage of fill and attempt to procure several weeks worth prior to the storm. In addition, if you can get just some of your chillers on generator, you can keep your critical areas reasonably cool.

Thanks for the info. Hope they keep all these things in mind for any hospitals being built or rebuilt in/near flood zones for the future.

Although it is probably more expensive to build this way I think that when you are responsible for so many lives it must be taken into account.