Kentuckiana EVS Teams
Do Battle with Natural Disasters

On August 4, a major thunderstorm struck Louisville, KY, and the surrounding Kentuckiana region, causing a flash flood, large hail, and 60-mph winds. The National Weather Service reported rainfall between three and six inches across the city in less than an hour. Some of the downtown area was under four feet of water. The flood was the region’s third major disaster of the year, having recovered from both a tornado in March and a “derecho,” a fast-moving and destructive windstorm, in June.

Damages amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. T The University of Louisville and the Louisville Public Library’s main branch each sustained millions of dollars in damage. The federal government declared the area a
national disaster zone. Among the healthcare facilities affected were four Crothall clients, all located in Louisville, KY.

EVS Director Angela Mathews reported that Hazelwood Center, a 200-bed facility, was right in the center of one of the hardest hit areas. “Phone calls for employees started pouring in from friends and families, letting our people know if their houses were flooded. One  associate’s dog was trapped inside a flooded house,
another employee’s car was under water, and another couldn’t get home to her stranded daughter,” commented Mathews. But team members galvanized to save their residents first. While they banded together to keep the water levels from overtaking vital equipment
and records, the facility lost total power. The generators also failed, placing residents dependent on life-sustaining equipment at risk.

Team members worked together, helping get those residents to safety, delivering food trays without the use of elevators, and continuing to fight the rising water. “I am proud to work with people dedicated to the lives of the clients we serve,” said Mathews.

According to EVS Director Jack Rupert, things at University of Louisville Hospital, an 865,000-square-foot facility, were also challenging and a bit scary. “It was an ‘all hands on deck’ day,” Rupert commented. The flooding shut down the hospital’s Sterile Processing Department for ten days, and a patient was on the
operating table when they lost one of their vascular labs. “That storm pulled in and dumped six-and-a-half inches of rain on us in three hours, then continued to
rain through early afternoon. Every storm sewer backed up and busted. Our cleanup started at 8 AM and went until 11 PM that night.” One housekeeping lead, James Grant, saw to operations on the patient floors while the
management team and others scrambled to push water down into the sub-basement. However, a silver lining could be found in the hospital’s teamwork as well as the
hospital’s well-run Disaster Plan.“I bet 85% of the people in the hospital didn’t even know what was going on,” said Rupert.

Luckily, three months later, everything is almost back to
normal for the Louisville, Kentuckians. One side benefit,
Jack Rupert reported, was RVP Larry Stebelsky’s gift of brand new shoes for the entire team.