The first thing I did was look at my call schedule. Only my luck produces scenarios such as these; I was on call all weekend. My grand plan of getting some beer, snacks, a few books and watching movies until the power died were dashed. Now my head was filled with scenarios straight from my last jaunt in California. Instead of gunshots I pictured some of our many average intelligence (read as extraordinarily dumb) patients coming to our ER impaled by tree limbs or electrocuted. The media, who obviously were having a slow news week, really attempted to cause mass hysteria. At least this was what I was able to piece together from watching a few minutes of CNN in a patient's room. It did not cause me to panic, but I did still evaluate my survival supplies. I had my large mag light as well as plenty of batteries, my fridge had plenty of food in it, I had plenty of canned goods. I could even do some cooking even if the power went out, as long as the gas was still working.
I then went for my pre-hurricane run on Friday. It was the calm before an extremely anticlimactic storm. I did what anyone else with common sense did after my run, I made hot sauce. Actually, I made schug (pronounced z'chuck), easy to make Yemenite hot sauce. A few hot peppers, a few cloves of garlic, some coriander, some cumin and olive oil and easily done in a blender.
Chemical warfarelicious
Now that my condiment collection was complete, as well a potential weapon against looters, I went to sleep. The next morning was fairly anticlimactic. I arrived at the hospital and everyone was in a state of panic. I myself did not know whether or not I would be evacuated from my apartment. I ground through my day fairly uneventfully until mid afternoon. That was when the rain started. At first it was light, but then it picked up in intensity. According to the Weather Channel, the storm was still hurricane status but weakening. I then learned I was going to be evacuated. I quickly went home and got supplies. I got some spare clothes, my large mag light and small clip knife. I also took a massive feed bag worth of food, including the last few corn muffins I had made.
Some preparation done for the lamest natural disaster since Sex and the City
I stayed the first night until late since I had a critical patient whom I could not abandon. Finally, I went to another resident's apartment near the hospital and crashed on her couch. By that time, the rain was heavy, but not intimidating. I fell asleep in a daze. The next morning, I woke up expecting to see scenes of destruction. Surprisingly all that had happened was more rain. The rain was still heavy and I was soaked completely after walking only 1 block. The hospital had made their emergency preparations as well. I noticed the ceiling was leaking in places. I think all this rain did was indicate the roof was in severe disrepair.
Ready as ever for hurricanepocalypse.
My day in the hospital was actually not eventful at all. On the bright side, there was food available in the cafeteria for free. The power did go down for 10 hours of my 12 hour shift though. The hospital was on backup generators for most of the day. It was a good thing I had the foresight to bring my giant mag light. The down time did allow for many pictures of some flooding.
Surprisingly after the rain stopped, most of this was cleaned up quickly
After my day mercifully ended, I went home to inspect the damage. As predicted, all that really happened were many flooded basements. My apartment was exactly the way I left it. I peeled off my scrubs and settled down to a nice long shower. I am sure many of my readers are asking "Would you like a medal?" with sarcastic sneers. To answer that: yes I would like a medal, so there. I had not showered for almost 2 days and felt slimy. I settled down to a large, well deserved dinner and then cracked open a post-hurricane beer for the disaster that never was.
Here's to you Irene, you disappointed me like so many other women
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