On the condition of anonymity, a Louisiana nurse spoke with Insider about their experiences as Hurricane Ida hit their hospital, which was already overwhelmed by COVID-19. …
On the condition of anonymity, a Louisiana nurse spoke with Insider about their experiences as Hurricane Ida hit their hospital, which was already overwhelmed by COVID-19. This is their story, as told to Elle Hardy. Before COVID-19 was an issue, I’d gone through numerous hurricanes as a nurse here in Louisiana. The usual protocol when we know a storm is coming is that we need to evacuate people. A situation like Hurricane Ida would see the hospital discharge almost everybody, or transfer them to other facilities. Before COVID-19, we would get the census down to a minuscule number. You’d have an empty ER and 90% of employees sitting around waiting for the influx of patients. However, you can’t do that if everyone within a four-hour radius of you is getting damage from the storm too. You also can’t transfer people if everyone within a reasonable distance is also full because of COVID-19. That meant my hospital was at full census before the storm hit. It looked as though the hospital hadn’t done anything to prepare, and we were working our butts off. We were watching the news until the cable went out, which usually means there are probably power outages.
