I work at the other hospital in Joplin, MO; I really don't know how one prepares for a diaster like our town went through. We have a diaster plan, and even had a diaster drill the previous week, but you don't plan for things like , no phones, no power, no computers, the other hospital in town being hit, it was a weekend, and staffing was minimal.<BR>It was very difficult for staff trying to get in to help, to get through because of roads being closed or impassible; I know several employees who literally walked that last 2-3 miles(and this was not safe, power lines and debris were down everywhere) --no way even to know which roads to attempt, because the city of Jopin was basically shut down--ie no phone/TV/radio stations to give information.<BR>Patient ID was difficult, many patients had no identification with them, and were unable to communicate. We do have a system, but were not prepared for hundreds of unknown patients.<BR>Our pathologist ended up going and picking up the entire blood supply form our neighboring hospital, which was hit in the tornado, and Thank God someone kept track of all inventory received from where (remember it was all manual, because we had no computer) and it's temperature upon arrival, because we did receive a visit from FDA wanting to see our paperwork, and verify the temperature upon receipt.<BR>In order to order blood products from our supplier, the same pathologist got in his car, and drove until he could get a signal on his cell phone. (Not sure how he figured out which direction to try to drive)<BR>Another thing to consider, is how long will workload be increased, we are now into August, and our workload is still significantly increased.<BR>Ok, I am done venting, and most of this probably won't help anyone with a diaster plan,