No damsels in distress here

“My daughter was worried. She asked me to evacuate with her. I told her the nursing license I carry means that I have a responsibility to stay and take care of my patients.

After I finished my shift that day, I came home to pack my overnight bag.

My husband said if you are staying, I am staying too.

We sent our daughter to New Orleans to be with her brothers and our extended family.

I packed my bag and drove to Community Health and Rehab to spend the night.

I figured I would be home the next afternoon.

I set up my air mattresses in the lobby and watched the news coverage with the other nurses and staff that were spending the night. No one got any real sleep. Everyone was awake and working by 4 a.m. My husband arrived shortly before the winds started to pick up to ride out the storm with me.

There were 115 patients in the facility. Most were mature adults that were receiving long term care or rehab after a surgery or illness.

We knew we needed to stay ahead of the game. We started preparing lunch early to ensure everyone was fed before the storm hit. Then we pulled patients into the hallway, away from windows, as a precaution.

Then I heard it. It sounded like someone shuffling a deck of cards.  It was the shingles flying off the roof. Then the water started pouring in. The winds intensified and the boarding on the windows blew off. The exterior doors blew open and debris started flying into the building.

Every free hand grabbed a wheel chair or a bed and started moving patients to the opposite wing of the building. It was a massive train of people dodging debris. We got to the end of the hall and the ceiling fell in. The train of people turned around and started moving in the other direction to find a safe place to ride out the storm.

Then another door blew open.

More debris flew in. Anything hanging on the walls was being ripped down by the wind.  

Every room had water pouring in, except the therapy room. We brought everyone into that room and continued to provide care. A stressful situation can cause blood pressure to rise and can cause someone to have a heart attack. We needed to prevent that from happening.

From the therapy room we had a clear view of everything that was going on.

All of the remaining windows blew in. Glass and rain covered everything.

Miraculously, during all of this I had cell reception. My director asked that I call 9-1-1. It wasn’t to ask for help but to tell them we were here. The situation had deteriorated and we didn’t think we were going to make it.

I called the operator and told them how many people were in the facility and where they could find us after the storm passed.

Another nurse was sharing her sharpie so people could write their information on their arm to help the first responders identify their body.

She handed it to me but I couldn’t do it. It was an act of defeat. I wasn’t ready to give up.

I was able to get a call through to my son in New Orleans. He was able to tell me that we were in the outer eye wall. The eye would never pass over us and we wouldn’t get a break. We still had an hour to go.

My husband and two other men were trying to hold the fire doors shut. The wind would easily push them open and slam the doors shut again. I was afraid someone was going to get hurt. But they kept holding them as best they could.

The winds shifted and the rest of the windows blew in.

Through the phone my three children could hear the chaos. They knew it was bad.  

I told them I didn’t know what was going to happen. I didn’t think this building was going to hold. It was an emotionally detached conversation. It had to be or I would have broken down.

I didn’t have time for that.

We felt the winds die down a bit. I got back on the phone with my son and asked if it was over. It felt like it was. It was gut wrenching to hear him say another big band was coming any second now.

About 15 minutes later the worst was over. Reality set in. We were stuck. We had no place to take the patients and help wasn’t coming any time soon.

Nearly everything and everybody was wet. Somehow the linen closet stayed mostly dry. We got patients changed into dry clothes and put dry sheets on the beds.

Once the winds died down completely, I walked outside. There was a train on the tracks knocked over on its side. Powerlines and trees covered the roads. It was silent and eerie.

Over the next 48 hours the staff took turns caring for patients and taking naps in our cars in the parking lot.

Eventually buses arrived to take the patients to new facilities out of town. It was hard. These were my patients and I would never know if they were going to be ok. It was like sending a family member away. The last bus drove away at midnight two days after the storm hit.

They were leaving on a bus and not in ambulance. No one got hurt or sick. Or died.

That is a testament to how hard the staff worked.

I drove home the next morning dodging trees and power lines. I only had to drive three miles but I wasn’t sure where I was going. None of the landmarks were there.

When I pulled into the driveway my son’s friend was there asking if my son was home and if he needed a job. There was a roofing company that was hiring.

I told him I need a job. Do you think they would hire a nurse?

In addition to losing my job we lost the income from two rental homes. We have one kid in college and another going next year. Not having a job wasn’t an option.

I cleaned up and went to their recently established mobile office on 23rd Street to apply.

They gave me a job doing project management and sales.

It’s been a learning curve. I had to get smart on the laws and codes and the product line but I am figuring it out.

You do what you have to do to make life work.”