floods

[winophite]

Well, for the first time in my 50 years, my town was hit by flooding, (aparently since 1913). At work several of us have joked in the past about folks calling asking what time we open, we're a hospital we never close...until this past weekend.
Over 10 inches of rain less than 5 miles north, 8+ west and 6+ east of town Friday night, with only 2.5 in town, and bam up came the creek and the hospital basment and half of fist floor under water. Mother nature sure can be tough sometimes. As always, the Man upstairs will help us through.

I live on high ground next to one of our high schools that's being used as evac point for some of the not too serious patients; the peole stranded in town, (all roads in and out were closed), are around the corner at a junior high. Fortunately about a thousand marines are near town stationed at Camp Attebury, (which was hit by a tornado last week thankfully with no injuries), staging anti-terrorist training this month and have been making urban chopper landings and such in the area. They were called in to help with the evacuation at the hospital. Also help from the National Guard and even a couple Coast Guard choppers came in for rescues. Nice response from our armed services!

Even worse, many poor folks with flooded homes. No one around here has flood insurance, not even offered at most ins companies. I'm afraid all our xray equip is shot, I may be out of work for a while! I'm sure leadership at the hospital will get things up and running as soon as possible.

Hard to put on a smile sometimes, but I'm sure a silver lining will emerge somewhere.
WP

[wondersofwine]

WP, my sympathies! I saw the flooding on the news this morning (I think on "Good Morning America") and they spoke about the labs and pharmacy being flooded in the basement of the hospital. At first I thought they were talking about Columbus, Ohio but then they said Indiana.

Iowa farmers haven't been able to plant a corn crop due to all the rain so that means corn, feed costs, ethanol and everything will become even more expensive.

I saw Wilkes-Barre, PA after severe flooding (my friend had to live in a trailer when he moved there because there were no homes or apartments to be found and he first visited his office by boat.) It's devastating the impact nature can have.

Hope the hospital is soon back in operation (and performing operations.)

[Georgie]

It sounds terrible. I can't imagine how devasting such a thing is.

[TheEngineer]

It's hard to imagine that one day everything is fine, and then the next day you are living in the areas that are being covered by CNN. Glad to hear that you are doing well and not in one of the areas that is submerged. Must be tough on everyone right now and I can imagine the mood being like this for some time yet as people try to recover their lives after this.

[Kcwhippet]

Talked with the parents of our niece who lives with us here in MA. Her parents live north east of Indianapolis and they have about two feet of water in the finished basement of their six year old house. They had four sump pumps running but three burned outwhen they couldn't keep up with the water inflow. However, they don'r have it as bad as the folks who live directly behind them. Their house was hit by lightning and burned almost to the ground because the fire department couldn't get the blaze under control fast enough. It's tough out there!

[winoweenie]

So bloomin' sorry WP. Hope all returns to a semblance of normalcy soon. Have been thru several floods in my time and much prefer the complete cleansing of a nice fire anytime. WW

[winophite]

Many of these flood victims in the area are talking about just walking away. A fire would have been insured.

Finally allowed limited employee work teams in the hospital starting today. Whew what a mess, and we only saw the parts that are partly cleaned. We were in the beginning phase of a big construction plan which was to be done by 2012. Leadership dispelled rumors that it would be on hold. To the contrary, now on the fast track. One manager described the circumstance as "easier to change a tire when the car is stopped". They are thinking maybe even saving "millions" in construction costs; but spending them on sanitation and payroll expense, (which I hope keeps up).

Thanks for your hopes and prayers for the area. WP