I is for Ian

It could be overwhelming, and it was important that we had as many hands on deck as we could in order to handle it all in the best way possible. But I didn’t want Jo at risk. I would feel much better if she were at home while all this was going on.

“Then I’m sticking around too. There are things to be done, and I can do them. I’ll be fine,” she said. She poured me a cup of coffee from the fresh pot, then poured herself one and held it up as if in a toast.

I knew better than to argue with her. If Jo had something in her mind she was going to do, she was damn well going to do it, and no one was going to be able to stop her. That was just how that worked.

I toasted her back and took a gulp of the strong, fortifying coffee. A couple more sips and the mug went into the sink to be rinsed, I stuffed a donut from the box sitting on the counter down my throat, and I was back to work. I figured I was better positioned than most of the people at the hospital. I lived far closer, just a few miles away on the Ashford side of Five Corners, so I figured I should be able to make it home, even if the snow kept falling at the rate it was.

Just as it was starting to look like we were going to be able to get the last of the patients on their way within an hour, the lights went out. Screams and gasps immediately sprung up as chaos broke out. Patients waiting to be transferred got frightened, and staff were upset, trying to figure out what to do next.

The halls filled with little glowing squares of light and the voices of doctors and nurses calling to let their families know they were safe but that they probably weren’t going to be making it home anytime soon. Emergency alerts blared out the battery-operated radios, and reports warned of extreme conditions that were going to last into the foreseeable future. Everyone was advised to stay where they were, not go out onto the roads, and not get near any power lines.

There was no indication of when the power might be restored or what was being done to handle the hazards. I rushed over to a window and looked out. The slight glow from emergency solar lights in the parking lot was quickly getting overtaken by the blanket of white coming down, but I was able to see enough to realize just how bad it was.

There were already several inches of accumulation, and the wind was blowing hard enough to whip the flakes into dramatic swirls that beat against the windows and bent the trees. With that much snow already on the ground and not letting up, I highly doubted I was going to be able to make it home.

I was glad for the bag I packed, knowing for sure now it was going to come into good use. Knowing there was no use in getting upset or frantic, I rushed back into work. The best thing I could do was try to make this easier for everyone here.

“Come on!” a doctor shouted from the other side of the hall. “The last three ambulances are here. They are still willing to take the patients. A plow is trying to keep up with the road in front of them, so it isn’t as dangerous, but they aren’t going to be able to see in this for too much longer. We need to get them out of here.”

I ran to help. It wasn’t until right then when I saw everyone who had gathered to help with the evacuation and knew it was everyone still at the hospital that I realized just how few of us there actually were left. We were down to a skeleton crew, which was a term that wasn’t sounding quite as whimsical now considering the circumstances.

We did everything we could to calm the patients and were finally able to get them all loaded onto the ambulances. The emergency response teams inside bundled them up and made sure any immediate continuation of treatment needed to stabilize them was underway as quickly as possible.

Once the last ambulance drove away, all that remained were the patients in the emergency room. This was the one section of the hospital where a generator was working and allowed for the ongoing support of patients. I looked around and counted. It looked like there were about twenty of us left in the hospital, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I might have been stuck there, but at least I was inside, warm, and dry. I was also happy there wasn’t going to be any construction to complicate the situation, or to annoy us with all their noise, or to distract me with unwanted dreams and memories. It might not be the most ideal situation, but I was glad I would be able to fall back on my nursing abilities to help Dr. Sutton and the other two doctors working to keep the emergency room running until the storm was over and power was restored.