Ike Speaks

We’re getting our first rain of the storm just in the last 30 minutes. The wind has knocked out power to both hospitals, but the generators are working great. We brought in an extra generator this week that is able to run the AC in the main hospital, so my office is cool and comfy. I’m going to take a nap here shortly because things will start hopping in a couple of hours.

I walked the crosswalk over Medical Center Boulevard just a little bit ago, and the lobby in the heart hospital is half-full of people hanging out and watching the storm in the 3-story glass lobby. The rain is whipping the trees – the oaks and maples more than the palm trees, whose branches are definitely all pointing in one direction but which still seem to be taking it all in stride. Walking back across the walkway, Ike growled at me. Ok, maybe not AT me, but he growled most assuredly. The noise he made wasn’t loud or sudden, like thunder. And it wasn’t a high-pitched sound, like wind rushing through a narrow space. It was a low, angry growl. It sounded like an enormous amount of air and rain, slashing and expanding into noise. Ike is probably already howling at Galveston and those lost souls who decided to “ride this one out”.

The hospital is full of paramedics, firefighters, cops and guardsmen who having been working their butts off for the last 72 hours and finally get to rest until the danger of the storm passes. Then they will be the first-responders to God only knows what. They have had the effect of making our employees and guests feel a lot safer.

Sleep sounds very good to me now. Love to all.