Hurricane A Team

The waiting room doors to the emergency department at Bay Medical were the first to blow out. The ambulance bay doors started to rattle.  We were afraid they were going to blow out too.

I am an emergency medicine physician at Bay Medical Center at the main hospital and at the Panama City Beach ER. 

When the hurricane warning and evacuation notices went out, I got confirmation that I was scheduled to work my three day “hurricane A team” shifts from Tuesday until Thursday.

My husband was on call that week as a plastic surgeon for the hospital, so we decided we would both stay at the hospital. We sent our children to stay with family in Alabama.

There was very little time for me to prepare for the hurricane or even pack appropriately before heading off to the hospital on Tuesday morning.

When I arrived for my shift, everyone was nervous but optimistic. It was only a category 1, possibly 2, storm. 

I worked all day Tuesday and we went to sleep that night on an inflatable mattress on the floor of an empty patient room. 

When we woke up the day of the hurricane, we learned that it had strengthened into a category 4 hurricane.

We were going to be hit hard.

We had patients in the ER that morning and the hospital had over 200 patients on the floors.  When the storm hit, we moved all the ER patients to the most central part of the department.  The staff congregated at the nurse’s station, listening to the destruction going on outside.

Many of the windows in the hospital started cracking and breaking.  Water was leaking down from the ceiling and nurses and staff were frantically moving patients out of rooms into safe areas in the hallway.

After the storm passed, we lost power and water.  There was no internet or cell service.  The generator kept some of the lights and critical equipment on, but without water, we could not cool down many machines that were needed in the hospital, making them unusable.

The deluge of patients started to come in very shortly after the storm passed.  Although the ER’s front door was damaged, we never closed.  People started to come in by foot or were driven in by people with trucks that could make it over the debris.

It was chaotic.

We were trying to take care of patients without computers, labs, limited x-ray capability and no running water.

The hospital started to evacuate patients out after the hurricane hit. They were able to transfer over 200 patients out within 48 hours after the storm hit to other hospitals.  Not a single patient, staff, or their family members were hurt during the hurricane.

After working 14 hours, I was exhausted. I waded through two inches of water in the hallway to get to my room.

Thursday was more of the same.  My husband and I finally left the hospital Thursday evening. 

We could not believe the destruction to the hospital, the surrounding neighborhood, and the entire city.

I cried on the way home. 

I could not recognize any of the landmarks or buildings that I have driven past every day over the last 7 years.  It was a completely different city.

I cried even more when we got home.

I cried because our city now looks like a war zone.

I cried because so many had lost so much but our house was ok.  I felt so guilty.

This has been one of the most devastating events I have ever lived through.

The damages to the hospital mean the community has lost a critical resource. 

The loss of hundreds of jobs at the hospital is heart breaking.  While I understand the reason, it is very difficult to know that so many are without a job when they have lost so much already.

I have also witnessed so much good.

I am in awe of the resilience and strength of the people here.

I have faith that this will not keep us down.

We will rebuild and restructure and will be even better than before.