Today’s story should be an earthquake one, given the recent events in Italy, but this story was an interesting link between the flooding in ND and the disaster unfolding in L’Aquila. The WHO marked World Health Day by focusing on the theme of “Safe Hospitals Save Lives”. More information on their “Safe Hospitals” initiative, including information on the “Hospital Safety Index,” case studies, and a photo gallery, can be found here.
This Propublica story lauds the preparedness of the Fargo and Moorehead hospitals and nursing homes. They were able to evacuate between 500 and 600 residents safely, in an orderly and timely fashion. Voice of America’s story relating to this makes the connection explicitly.
And if you happen to be interested in this topic, the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (who knew?) is offering a free class on “Disaster Medicine 201: Post-Earthquake Medical Challenges in the New Madrid Seismic Zone”, May7-8 at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis, TN.
“This class is a big-picture overview of medical issues related to the earthquake threat in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. It was developed through the cooperation of CUSEC and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The class is presented with the invaluable assistance of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. The primary instructors are doctors with extensive backgrounds in emergency and disaster medicine.”
Actually, the New Madrid Fault Line has a long history of causing trouble in this part of the country (although it’s been quiet of late); an excellent book on that topic is “When the Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes“, by Jay Feldman. Dr. Walter Green includes it in his “50 Books” for Emergency Services Management list.
(2007-08) Feldman, Jay; When The Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes; [book]; New York, New York, United States of America; Free Press; 2005.
Studies of disasters often focus on the technical issues of the disaster itself, and occasionally on the immediate political and social fallout of the event. Feldman has written a book that takes the series of New Madrid earthquakes and puts them in two other contexts. At the macro level he recounts the relationship of the earthquake in the much larger context of the American frontier, examining its interplay with Tecumseh’s campaign against United States expansion into Native American tribal lands. On the micro level, he examines the relationship of the disaster to the murder of a slave by two of Thomas Jefferson’s nephews, and to the eventual downfall of their family. The result is an interesting read that broadens your understanding of the New Madrid earthquakes and of the time in which they occurred.
Finally, this article, “Counting Crises: US Hospital Evacuations, 1971-1999,” (available to U of R students in print or through our delivery service to distance education students), from the journal Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, investigates:
“the relative distribution of hazards causing hospital evacuations, thereby to provide rudimentary risk information for hospital disaster planning. “