Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital

Memorial hospital has practiced for a hurricane-like disaster, but the rehearsals had failed to consider the most extreme situations. Part of the problem is money. The hospital needs upgrades to its emergency power supply, which depends on electric motors located in the basement. However, these motors will likely flood during a huge storm. These upgrades will be expensive, and Memorial puts off implementing them. 

Another problem is that an emergency, by its very randomness, tends to surprise everyone with the shape and extent of its destructive course. Survivors often must abandon old plans and improvise new ones. These new plans are experimental and don’t always solve the problem but sometimes worsen it.

Yet another problem is that it’s nearly impossible to conduct a coordinated rehearsal among the many agencies that will respond in a disaster, much less stage a simulation that anticipates every eventuality. During the Katrina emergency, communications are disrupted and confused; rescuers often work at cross purposes, disagree on the chain of command, and misinterpret information they receive. This causes delays in rescuing people, including those trapped at Memorial hospital. 

Whether these lessons are learned by the nation at large is up for debate, as a similar situation erupts in New York City, in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy causes outages and flooding at Bellevue hospital.