The most extreme snowstorm ever to hit Buffalo, N.Y., has created 8 feet of snow and crippled much of the city’s infrastructure. While the town’s football team missed practice because of the weather, its hospitals have managed to keep going strong.
Because accredited hospitals must decide in advance if they can sustain at least 96 hours of operations in an emergency without outside aid, Buffalo hospitals Mercy and Kaleida Health were prepared for Mother Nature’s ire.
Kaleida Health’s Facebook page proclaims that its staff has “done whatever it took to make it into work and care for our patients” and C.J. Urlaub, Mercy Hospital president and CEO, emphasizes his hospital’s readiness.
“We have prepared and trained for this,” Urlaub told The Buffalo News. “There is enough food, medications and oxygen. The staff has been incredible.”
Some hospital employees even helped patients outside the hospital, such as the woman in labor who serendipitously crossed paths with a Mercy Hospital delivery nurse during her attempt to get to the hospital.
While Buffalo health care workers have made the most of the storm, its threat still looms large: impending rain could add extra weight to the snow that has already threatened collapse at the Garden Gate Health Care Facility in Cheektowaga.
