Oh yay! I'm an E1 this year!

[GalvestonDuck]

^^^^Mocked excitement, of course^^^^

Essential employee, that is.

First time ever, since I used to work for the clinics and they don't stay open for crap. But now, as hospital personnel, I get the pleasure *coughcough* of being able to stay on the island and ride out a storm several floors up in the Towers.

Actually, it means I'm one of the team members who gets to stay for any type of emergency -- storm, mass casualty, attack.

Anybody else considered an essential employee at their workplace?

[invictus61101]

My dad was when he was a shift foreman at the Goodyear plant in Beaumont. He got the pleasure of staying for Hurricane Andrew. Luckily it veered away from here.

[bevgo]

^^^^Mocked excitement, of course^^^^

Essential employee, that is.

First time ever, since I used to work for the clinics and they don't stay open for crap. But now, as hospital personnel, I get the pleasure *coughcough* of being able to stay on the island and ride out a storm several floors up in the Towers.

Actually, it means I'm one of the team members who gets to stay for any type of emergency -- storm, mass casualty, attack.

Anybody else considered an essential employee at their workplace?

Had to do that for years. Got lucky though and never had a bad hit in my area. Now I am able to do what I need to do and get out. My job allows that now and is more concerned with my safety that whether or not I can see my patients. I will use time prior to a storm to educate my patients on preperation though.

[southerngale]

Oh wow duckie...ummm congrats?

I pray Southeast Texas doesn't see any threats this year!

[Dionne]

I suppose you could consider me an "essential".....I own the business, building and everything in it along with work trucks, trailers.....etc. As a Katrina veteran, I can tell you that there isn't anything worth trying to save. My primary concern is for our workers and my family. I am a strong advocate for evacuation. We did not evacuate before Katrina and it turned out to be one of the single largest mistakes in 35 years of doing business.

[GalvestonDuck]

I'm all for evacuation myself.

But patients come first, in this case. We gotta help those who can't help themselves.

[timNms]

I'm all for evacuation myself.

But patients come first, in this case. We gotta help those who can't help themselves.

Duckie, what are the odds that they'll evacuate the patients if there is a major coming your way?
My wife is in a similar situation as you. As the supervising nurse on the night shift, she can pretty well plan on staying put should our area be threatened by another "katrina-type" event. The one good thing about it is that we don't have to worry about storm surge

[bvigal]

Wow, I don't know what I would be thinking if I were you!! I guess I'd want to know, if they couldn't evacuate the hospital, just how much of a storm it can withstand and how they plan to protect it, maintain power (hope the generators aren't on the ground floor, as often the case), etc. You know, the first rule for emergency responders is to use common sense to protect yourself, because you won't be much use to anyone else if you are injured or dead!

[Texmedic]

hope the generators aren't on the ground floor, as often the case

They sure are, every last one of them, except in the TDC hospital...

R

[GalvestonDuck]

I'm all for evacuation myself.

But patients come first, in this case. We gotta help those who can't help themselves.

Duckie, what are the odds that they'll evacuate the patients if there is a major coming your way?
My wife is in a similar situation as you. As the supervising nurse on the night shift, she can pretty well plan on staying put should our area be threatened by another "katrina-type" event. The one good thing about it is that we don't have to worry about storm surge

They evacuated the hospital for Rita. But by the time the patients were evac'd, it was close to 8:00 in the evening and the staff who got to evac by then got caught in the worst of the famous exodus traffic jam because they were in the "back of the line" so to speak (they were some of the last to leave Galveston Island). Most of those I've talked to were not under the impression that they'd get to leave. They had packed and planned to stay in the hospital.

[bvigal]

hope the generators aren't on the ground floor, as often the case

They sure are, every last one of them, except in the TDC hospital...

R

Well duh! What those people think when they build a hospital??!

I'm not in architecture, but... I'd put in an internal "wing" on each floor with no windows, vault-type doors that could be closed, and service those "bomb wings" with isolated emergency lines for : oxygen, electricity, airconditioning, water, emergency phones, etc. On 2nd or 3rd floor I'd put my isolated "plant" to run those all those services, including their generators, independent of the rest of the building, including connection stairwell. I'd let those areas house ICU, CCU, PCCU, surgical recovery (all those patients who can't look out the window anyway). When it came time for hurricane evac, the critical patients who can't evac are already in the bomb-proof, hurricane proof part of the building. Shut down and evac everything else, lock the big doors, and you are safe from storm winds, rising water, looters, etc. Even if it's a terrorist threat, it might come in very handy...

[GalvestonDuck]

It's my understanding that we evacuated every patient from UTMB (the first time in the hospital's 114-year history) - a task that was overseen by, of all things, a former University of Kentucky associate.

"UNIVERSITY OF TX MEDICAL BRANCH (UTMB) IN GALVESTON WILL BE CLOSING ALL FACILITIES AT 8 AM THIS MORNING. NO MEDICAL CARE WILL BE AVAILABLE AT UTMB HOSPITAL FROM THIS POINT FORWARD."

[NFLDART]

Essential sucks especially when you are the adavance party into a storm area. yikes...

[MSRobi911]

Been there, done that, sat through many, can't sleep, you might miss something....hehehehehe even if your shift doesn't start till 11:00 pm or the next am at 7:00, some awfully tired folks, but you are still there for the patients. Since I left the hospital Emergency Room years and years and years ago I don't have that, but my husband who is a Major with the Sheriffs Dept. is always on call and has to be at the "Command Center" where ever that may be, used to be the Courthouse before Katrina, but since they still haven't fixed that, it will be at the Fair Grounds where they have set up radio communication and phone lines to be used with a generator. It is a small block building and not much room so I don't know where I will go if another storm comes this way now. The children and I always went with him except for Ivan and I went to Meridian which was worse than staying at home cause it went straight up the state line and we couldn't get out for 2 days because of down trees on the road and on the major highways. Said I wouldn't evaccuate again, after watching 5 feet of water come in the courthouse that is 2 miles from the gulf, I don't know about that anymore. But I certainly won't stay by myself. This house didn't get water from Katrina, so unless it is a more direct hit on us or bigger than Katrina (I hope to never see that) I guess I will be here at home with my 78 year old Mom and 54 year old Brother who both have had quadruple heart bypassess with me while Robi is at work and just pray that the river doesn't rise anymore than it did with Katrina. I am sure that both children will be back at college in North Mississippi around the "most active part" of the season. I guess we could drive the 5 1/2 hours to either one of the kids house or apartment in Oxford or Starkville, but then you face the traffic and not being able to get home for days and days. My daughter was at Ole MS during Katrina and could not come home because of the roads and the shortage of gasoline and she was freaking out. But at least our cell phone company worked, Cellular South, the only one in town that did work. So many people used my phone I thought my bill was going to be out of this world, but you know what, Cellular South didn't charge one penny for any calls during that time for about a month or so. She was our life line, I could call her and she could call whoever we needed her to call where ever in the US they were. She made numerous calls for strangers that just walked up to the Court House looking for a telephone just to let their loved ones know they were OK. She was an angel for a lot of people during that time for sure!

Ok, I'll hush! Got way off topic here, please forgive me....

Mary

[angelwing]

What do you do if you're considered an E-1 at 2 jobs in different states????? I'm already one at my day job at the base, now the hospital wants to make me one...ackkkkkkk

[MSRobi911]

Which one pays you more???? or Regularly or do YOU HAVE TO DO???

Mary

[angelwing]

The day job is a *have-to* even though they are 45 miles away from my home; the other job is night time and they are 8 miles away from home; the second job hasn't pushed the issue so I'm not going to push it, I'll wait and see what happens.