North Carolina Emergency Medical Services planners are returning the National Mobile Disaster Hospital based in Mocksville, N.C., to full readiness for the 2014 hurricane season, which began June 1.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Climate Prediction Center forecasts for 2014 eight to 13 named storms of which three to six will become hurricanes and one or two will be major hurricanes, overall an average to less than average level of storm activity.
Several elements of the FEMA-owned MDH were deployed in early May from North Carolina to Mississippi following the April 28 tornado outbreak that wiped out most medical facilities in Winston County, Mississippi. The storms included an EF4 tornado that left county seat Louisville and its medical community reeling, and 10 dead in the community.
“We’re thrilled that the folks in Mississippi are back in business, and understand they’re seeing 35 to 40 patients a day,” said Dr. Lew Stringer, the MDH project manager who coordinated delivery and setup of the temporary hospital. “We’re getting some of our trailers and some of the equipment not needed in Mississippi back so we can begin to get ready for whatever comes next.”
A clinical office and administrative module unit – a 68-foot by 144-foot structure – has been added to the National Mobile Disaster Hospital site. Stringer said the temporary clinical facility will help assure continued employment for hospital and medical workers whose livelihoods had been leveled or heavily damaged by the storms. Plans also call for additional of contracted CAT scan equipment to the compound in the next few weeks.
It will take about two years to get the community’s medical center back in operation. The temporary quarters will be needed until then.
As part of its recovery following the wreckage left behind by the tornadoes, Louisville, Miss., residents are pulling together behind the slogan ‘Winston Strong,’ and communicating important recovery and assistance information through local news media, the faith community, government and private organizations.
Aid has flowed into the community from several locations including Norman, Okla., where an EF5 tornado struck a year earlier, devastating much of the landscape, including that community’s hospital, Moore Medical Center.
Most recently, hospital employees in Norman sent a $48,000 tornado relief donation to the employees of the Winston County Medical Center to help them as they rebuild their lives. The Norman Regional Health System broke ground last month on a $29-million replacement hospital, to be built on the site of the one that was destroyed.