Photo courtesy of The Outer Banks Hospital Office of News & Information, East Carolina University	More NurseWeek Features   Smoke-Free Zone   Nurses and patients tackle nicotine addiction   Bloodless Survival     Surgical techniques to use when transfusion drops out of the equation
During the height of the hurricane, Marvin Martin, director of plant operations, and Gladys Moore, plant operations staff member, placed sandbags at the trauma entrance of The Outer Banks Hospital in Nags Head, N.C.

Alice Ferguson, RN, traveled 94 miles round-trip during Hurricane Isabel to visit a bedridden, high-risk obstetrical patient. Driving in heavy rain and high winds, she watched trees crash to the ground and waves lap over the sides of the bridge across the James River.

"The whole way over there I kept thinking, 'This is crazy, why am I doing this?' " To make matters even more frightening, Ferguson brought her daughter along because she didn't want to leave her at home alone.

"The whole time I'm thinking, 'Not only am I going to get myself killed, I'm going to get my 12-year-old daughter killed as well,' " said Ferguson, a home care nurse with Sentara Home Care Services in Virginia Beach, Va.

So why did she venture out into a hurricane instead of playing it safe at home or, better yet, evacuating farther inland where the hurricane couldn't reach them?

"Because I had to," she said. "When you're a nurse, your patients come first."

Isabel struck the Outer Banks of North Carolina about noon Sept. 18 before heading north through North Carolina and Virginia.

Along the way, it killed at least 30 people, carved three new inlets through Hatteras Island, downed thousands of trees, cut power to about 2 million customers and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.

Through it all, nurses and other health care professionals left spouses and children at home, put themselves in harm's way to help patients and co-workers, and slept at hospitals and other health care facilities.

Roberta "Bert" Salmon, RN, director of quality and patient care at The Outer Banks Hospital in Nags Head, N.C., arrived at work at 7 a.m. Sept. 17 and remained until 4:45 p.m. Sept. 19. She said she slept a total of 7½ hours.

"We were very busy prior to the hurricane just getting everything battened down and protected in case we did have leakage, in case we did have any damage to the hospital," she said. "We attempted to protect as much of our equipment as possible."

Power of planning

The Outer Banks Hospital is the only hospital on North Carolina's Outer Banks, which is made up of barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and a series of inland waterways referred to as "sounds." The 19-bed hospital, which opened March 19, 2002, is designed to withstand winds of 150 mph.

Because the hospital was directly in the hurricane's path, administrators decided to evacuate patients to other hospitals two days before the hurricane struck and keep its emergency department open.

As the storm approached, Salmon and others wrapped computers, telemetry machines, ultrasound machines and other huge pieces of equipment with plastic from 6-foot-wide rolls, like the kind used on construction sites. They also covered telephones and desks and put some items in trash bags.

"I even went next door to the grocery store and bought Ziploc bags for some of our small items," she said.

The hospital invoked its hurricane plan Sept. 14 and followed it step by step, Salmon said. Each day, the hospital met certain goals prescribed by the plan, and in the end, everything turned out well.

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