So on Sunday they "upgraded" the phone system at work. They mixed up all of the extensions, and the old extension number for the housekeeping supervisor now rings into our IV room. God only knows where the Old IV room extension rings. And the old pharmacy portable phone extension number now rings into elevator #2 in the old building. Joy.
On Monday night the omnicell machines were not working correctly - but it turned out to be because of the new phone lines, not because of the machines themselves.
On Tuesday near record highs and high humidity hit the area. There are usually only a few days of the year when everyone uses their air conditioners in this part of the country. When they do, the electrical grid cannot handle the grossly increased demand. So we started getting blackouts in Ann Arbor. When the lights went out at work, the emergency generators kicked in (lovely Big Bertha! How we adore you when the power goes out! You give us lights! You give us working medical equipment!) but some of the high tech stuff got sort of confused for awhile.
Tonight nothing weird happened with the phones or machinery, though roving blackouts reportedly continued hitting various Ann Arbor neighborhoods during the day. But one of the pharmacists I work with has a daughter doing a summer internship in the Twin Cities, and crosses that freeway bridge that collapsed tonight on a daily basis - right about the time of the catastrophic structural failure. And the lady could not reach her daughter via cell phone. The cell phone system must have gotten overloaded and crashed, because she could not even reach her daughter's voice mail. Thankfully, the daughter did eventually call to let her mother know that she was fine. She had stayed late at work, so was not on the bridge when it went down - though if she had left work at her normal time she would have probably been in the tragedy.
What a horrible thing - those poor people on the bridge. It must have been the most terrifying moment of their lives. So many hurt, so many dead - and so many cars down in the water, which still might contain bodies.
We crossed the Mississippi on that bridge a few years ago, when we drove out to Dassel for Dan's nephew's high school graduation party. Dan said the kids were all freaked out all night over the bridge collapse, with the freak out compounded by having once been on the bridge in question, and during rush hour in bumper to bumper traffic at that.
God, please open your arms and welcome the dead into your presence. Please heal the injured. Let the lost be found, alive and well. Please bring emotional healing and well being to the rescue workers, volunteers, and medical personnel who are fighting to rescue/save those precious lives and who, in coming days, will bring the remains of the deceased back to their families so their loved ones can say goodbye and have closure. Thank you for giving us so many brave and good people who rush in to help others in the face of great personal danger.
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