Hurricane season '08

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by carnation

I wish that the hospitals could have gotten some ice for their morgues but no. My sister finally found a funeral home with a generator that could take my uncle's body (it was at the hospital with no power for 2 days, I don't want to think about that) and the place is down at the Ship Channel. We told her to take a guard with her tomorrow when she goes to plan the obituary and shipment of his body to Austin for burial. They don't know when they can get it there, maybe this weekend, but since our daughter's wedding is this weekend--we'll miss the funeral.

Funny how something like this hurricane can change everything. He had his whole funeral plan made out and paid for and now he's not at that place and his plans are all messed up. Our aunt died during the tropical storm in July but at least the storm didn't majorly interfere with her burial.

We are devastated by the destruction of Crystal Beach but this is so much worse.

Sorry for the long rant but it seems that as often as Houston gets hit by storms, the hospitals and funeral homes would have had backup power plans.

Originally Posted by AGDee

Generators run on fuel, which cannot be bought if there is no power. After 4 days, people will be running out of fuel. You can only stockpile so much fuel during a ferocious storm because it's not really safe to have large amounts on hand.

I seem to recall them passing out dry ice after previous disasters. I can't believe they aren't doing that.

Don't hospital generators typically use a secondary source of fuel that would either be supplied on site from a continuing source like a natural gas line or with huge fuel tanks that would safely store a lot of fuel? Obviously this doesn't help if the hospital is actually hit by the storm, but when you're thinking of a building that's basically intact, but simply without outside power. . .

Carnation, I'm really sorry about your uncle and the circumstance with the funeral homes have got to compound an already difficult situation. (Your sister must be a strong woman.) I hope your daughter's wedding is beautiful and is a joyful and healing time for your family.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Don't hospital generators typically use a secondary source of fuel that would either be supplied on site from a continuing source like a natural gas line or with huge fuel tanks that would safely store a lot of fuel? Obviously this doesn't help if the hospital is actually hit by the storm, but when you're thinking of a building that's basically intact, but simply without outside power. . .

Carnation, I'm really sorry about your uncle and the circumstance with the funeral homes have got to compound an already difficult situation. (Your sister must be a strong woman.) I hope your daughter's wedding is beautiful and is a joyful and healing time for your family.

I was posting about personal generators at people's homes. (I was typing while you were posting about the hospitals and carnation about the funeral homes)

That said, we had a rude awakening within my health system when we had the Blackout of 2003. About 10 minutes after the power went out and the emergency lights went on, the emergency lights went out too. Turns out, our building's generator runs on water pressure. With a power outage that large, water pumping stations stop running and there is no water pressure. It was really a mess, a whole building evacuating using stairwells with not a solitary ray of light available. The brilliant security guards in our building thought they would light up the stairwell with huge flashlights, from the ground. So, as you looked down to find the next step, you were blinded by a flashlight. NOW, every person in the building has a battery free flashlight (the kind you shake) and there are battery operated emergency lights in the stairwells. Sometimes you don't know what's going to fail until it happens.

ETA: Luckily, that was at corporate headquarters, the hospital had a better backup system.