(A271) Building Resilient Healthcare Systems during Natural Disasters — Impacts of the 2007 Tulsa, Oklahoma Ice Storm

Abstract

On the evening of 07 December 2007, an ice storm occurred in the south central United States, causing severe power outages in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and leaving > 900,000 people without power for up to three weeks. Eighteen states contributed power workers to restore functioning power over a three-week period. Cleanup of debris from fallen trees took an additional five months. Hospitals and other healthcare facilities are considered to be critical infrastructure facilities in the community. During this storm, five of the six tertiary care hospitals lost power. In these hospitals, the internal telephone systems failed, internal suctioning systems failed, and the internal oxygen system failed. Water treatment plants were without power for 48 hours. Nursing home patients were discharged to homes or transferred to hospitals, as nursing homes tried to function without power for heating, patient monitoring devices, or cooking. Communication for these outlying care facilities was disrupted by the storm damage. Hospital emergency departments that had power became havens as they had heat, communication, water, and even warm food. Multiple patients with injuries due to cleaning up tree debris, falls, and carbon monoxide poisoning from ill-advised efforts to heat dwellings were seen in these emergency departments. Ambulance services had fuel shortages early in the course of the ice storm due to the inability to pump fuel (electrically operated pumps initially were non-functional). Three standards of care were altered for prehospital responders. This paper explains the efforts taken to mitigate future calamities, based on the lessons learned from this event.