nusman68
Well-known member
What a ride...finally getting my internal clock back to normal after Rita's somewhat near miss here in Sugarland (just outside Houston for those unfamiliar). Myself and other fellow paramedics worked killer extended shifts (48 hrs., off maybe 12, back for 48 or even longer) it was nuts... and then the thing missed us. We were damn lucky. The huge clusterf*** here were the gridlocks on hwy 59, 6, and 90. We would get a call for 'heat exhaustion in a blue chevy' or an 'unconscious person in a silver ford' LOL! Yeah, that narrows it down! Only 400 blue chevys per mile! People were dropping like flies from the heat as everyone had shut down their vehicles and would just sit there roasting in their 4-wheel Easy Bake oven. Most didn't bring enough water. We would drive up and down the northbound side of 59 (NO traffic on it) scanning the southbound lanes. A group of Hell's Angels could have driven northbound from Victoria to the Astrodome naked and on fire and no one would have noticed! (Yeah, OK, the media, TwoWheelNut and maybe Radman would have)
To 'ice the cake' we of course still ran routine medical/trauma calls unrelated to the hurricane. All the hospitals got overrun with evacuees, much to the dismay of local residents who just couldn't understand why their normal level of service was now compromised...the hospitals all went on 'internal disaster mode' closing to all but truly critical patients. One memorable moment was a local affluent lady who got in the back door of one of the hospitals we routinely transport to; she demanded to see the doctor in charge, then ordered him to give her her regular Botox injections because her plastic surgeon had closed down for the evacuation! :blink: Said doctor had a good laugh and told her she would just have to wait til next week...oh, the humanity!
A huge wake up call for the region nonetheless. Had the FJR in my smaller all- brick/no-windows garage with the door braced with about 400 lbs of bagged garden soil and hoped for the best. That became the fall-back position for my family if needed; then it turned; great news for us, bad for LA (again).
Signing off...AZ's looking pretty good about now....
To 'ice the cake' we of course still ran routine medical/trauma calls unrelated to the hurricane. All the hospitals got overrun with evacuees, much to the dismay of local residents who just couldn't understand why their normal level of service was now compromised...the hospitals all went on 'internal disaster mode' closing to all but truly critical patients. One memorable moment was a local affluent lady who got in the back door of one of the hospitals we routinely transport to; she demanded to see the doctor in charge, then ordered him to give her her regular Botox injections because her plastic surgeon had closed down for the evacuation! :blink: Said doctor had a good laugh and told her she would just have to wait til next week...oh, the humanity!
A huge wake up call for the region nonetheless. Had the FJR in my smaller all- brick/no-windows garage with the door braced with about 400 lbs of bagged garden soil and hoped for the best. That became the fall-back position for my family if needed; then it turned; great news for us, bad for LA (again).
Signing off...AZ's looking pretty good about now....
