Well, the so called “Rapture” was a big dud over the weekend, however the crackpots did predict disasters. Unfortunately, coincidentally, one occurred in the Midwest the day after the world’s destruction was called for. Tornadoes struck several areas. North Minneapolis, MN suffered heavy damage and one death. However, Joplin, MO was virtually levelled and almost 120 killed. Pictures of that town look similar to post WWII Berlin!

The story of how St John’s hospital in that town was hit directly is incredible. I believe all the windows were blown out and some people were sucked out of the them and killed. I am sure more horrific stories will surface in the days to come. However, I am sure some heroic stories will too. Take the ER there. I read how the staff went into disaster mode almost immediately and helped co-ordinate getting all the patients and staff as well as the newly injured out to other hospitals. The picture of the EMS chopper flipped over and almost destroyed aka Blackhawk Down is quite impressive. I worry that if something like that happened to my hospital, would we be as helpful in our ER? Would we be even remotely prepared? Would people just run out and say “Peace out!” figuring their shift was over?!? Would I have even the remotest clue of how to proceed?

We’ve done disaster drills but all of them were presuming the ER and hospital were still functioning! This was more like setting up a field hospital outside the real hospital! Anyway, I really feel for these folks so affected by the storm and am really impressed by the ER staff (and other rescue workers). My heart goes out to all of you

The above was borrowed from an online ER Physicians blog named: erstories.net . My question to the people of Sherman and surrounding areas: With all your drills for all the emergencies that could possibly happen, do you drill for one like this, with the ER wiped out? Thanks for listening.