Keeping the old, the sick and the homeless safe

[okarol]

Keeping the old, the sick and the homeless safe

By Marsha King, Sonia Krishnan and Kyung M. Song
Seattle Times staff reporters

For the homeless of the region, the lacerating winds Thursday night simply became too much, driving overflow crowds to shelters.

In Shoreline, at least a few adult family homes tried to warm residents with portable heaters, fireplaces or bundled blankets. And five out of the 12 Northwest Kidney Centers were without power Friday, triggering an emergency dialysis regimen for some patients.

But for the most part, the institutions for the region's most vulnerable people managed to weather the storm just fine.

Thanks to backup generators and batteries, hospitals and nursing homes in Seattle and King County were among the few places that kept operating, mostly uninterrupted, protecting critical patients and keeping computers running as the power crashed Thursday night.

"As bad as this storm was, we've been pretty fortunate," said Darren Redick, vice president of facilities for Swedish Medical Center. "Our staff made it in and we've been running pretty well."

Two shelters operated by Hopelink in Kenmore and Redmond remained without power Friday afternoon. The agency said it might put people up in motels if the outage continues.

In Snohomish County, staff at the Everett Gospel Mission scurried to find 30 extra cots and made sleeping spaces in hallways and offices. A boarding home in Edmonds was evacuated when a tree fell into it, and a similar home in Mill Creek was cleared out when it lost power.

Several hospitals, including Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle and Stevens Hospital in Edmonds, lost electricity overnight before it was restored Thursday morning. Hospitals canceled many elective surgeries to conserve power.

But in general, hospitals fared relatively well because of sophisticated emergency systems.

Generators kept things running at Swedish's Providence campus in Seattle and Group Health Cooperative's Eastside Hospital in Redmond. Several trees fell on Group Health's woodsy campus, but spokeswoman Katie McCarthy said none hit the hospital.

Northwest Kidney Centers was redirecting patients to locations with electricity. The patients' dialysis treatments will be shortened, from three or four hours to 2 ½ hours, to accommodate the patient load, said spokeswoman Ingrid Goodwin. All patients are asked to call 206-292-2771, extension 0.

Meanwhile, one hospital's emergency capabilities ended up helping its community in a different way:

Kirkland residents discovered that emergency diesel generators at the public Evergreen Hospital Medical Center made it a choice dining spot, and they streamed into the hospital cafe. Officials said they planned to stay open late Friday night — until 10 p.m. — to serve the hungry people.

Kyung Song: 206-464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com

Sonia Krishnan: 206-515-5546 or skrishnan@seattletimes.com

Marsha King: 206-464-2232 or mking@seattletimes.com

URL: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003480670_stormvulnerable16m.html?syndication=rss
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[stauffenberg]

In Canada where I live the winters are so cold that during those months we live in a perpetual state of emergency with respect to the lethal temperatures outside.  I can never believe that society is content to let the homeless sleep on the streets under such circumstances, but in a city like Winnipeg, for example, on cold winter mornings you can often see the police collecting frozen bodies of homeless people out of the snow.  In Ottawa I was amused by the irony that the Episcopal church, in whose doorway the homeless used to crowd for shelter on cold nights, eventually built an iron gate to keep them out!  How Christian!  I guess the reason the government doesn't have enough money to build adequate free housing for the homeless is that we are spending so much ($2 billion a year) "helping" the people in Afghanistan.  Isn't it odd, though, how it is the very same countries which are so reluctant to spend any money helping their own needy which are also always so eager to "help" the needy by invading foreign countries which are either rich in oil or occupy an important geopolitical position on the map?

[Sara]

Stauffenberg, care to share how many random homeless people you have let sleep on your couch? 

[angela515]

Stauffenberg, care to share how many random homeless people you have let sleep on your couch? 

  Sara

[Zach]

Now that you have a transplant stauffenberg, are you working full time?

[vandie]

In Canada where I live the winters are so cold that during those months we live in a perpetual state of emergency with respect to the lethal temperatures outside.  I can never believe that society is content to let the homeless sleep on the streets under such circumstances, but in a city like Winnipeg, for example, on cold winter mornings you can often see the police collecting frozen bodies of homeless people out of the snow.  In Ottawa I was amused by the irony that the Episcopal church, in whose doorway the homeless used to crowd for shelter on cold nights, eventually built an iron gate to keep them out!  How Christian!  I guess the reason the government doesn't have enough money to build adequate free housing for the homeless is that we are spending so much ($2 billion a year) "helping" the people in Afghanistan.  Isn't it odd, though, how it is the very same countries which are so reluctant to spend any money helping their own needy which are also always so eager to "help" the needy by invading foreign countries which are either rich in oil or occupy an important geopolitical position on the map?

Holy Crap!!  Quit moaning about the government and throw some money at these problems you are so quick to complain about.  If you think the homeless need more aid, offer your time at a homeless shelter, offer donations to one.  Spouting off statistics at every turn just gets absurd.

[Sluff]

In Canada where I live the winters are so cold that during those months we live in a perpetual state of emergency with respect to the lethal temperatures outside.  I can never believe that society is content to let the homeless sleep on the streets under such circumstances, but in a city like Winnipeg, for example, on cold winter mornings you can often see the police collecting frozen bodies of homeless people out of the snow.  In Ottawa I was amused by the irony that the Episcopal church, in whose doorway the homeless used to crowd for shelter on cold nights, eventually built an iron gate to keep them out!  How Christian!  I guess the reason the government doesn't have enough money to build adequate free housing for the homeless is that we are spending so much ($2 billion a year) "helping" the people in Afghanistan.  Isn't it odd, though, how it is the very same countries which are so reluctant to spend any money helping their own needy which are also always so eager to "help" the needy by invading foreign countries which are either rich in oil or occupy an important geopolitical position on the map?

I have been watching the direction of this thread and have not commented until now. We need to stay on topic. The thread is about keeping the old, sick and homeless safe.

The two most controversial subjects are religion and politics. If you want a debate about religion or politics then go to off-topic and start a thread on of those topics.

-Sluff
Moderator

[Sluff]

I only wish I could help the less fortunate but I'm strapped myself. If I could I would help in less than a heartbeat.