Oklahoma next in line to receive Louisiana's evacuated hospital patients
Oklahoma next in line to receive Louisiana's evacuated hospital patients

By Michael Kimball

Published: August 31, 2008

Hospital patients evacuated from Louisiana because of Hurricane Gustav have not yet begun to arrive in Oklahoma, but the state is next in line to receive them after Arkansas, officials said this morning.

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A plane with about 100 hospital patients originally heading to Oklahoma City was diverted to Little Rock, Ark., said Richard Smith, a National Disaster Medical System liaison to the Oklahoma Emergency Operations Center.

Another plane supposedly bound for Oklahoma City has not yet left Louisiana.

Flights began arriving in Arkansas last night, but some were lightly loaded with patients, Smith said. He said one flight carried seven patients aboard a military C-17cargo plane, which has a payload capacity of more than 85 tons, according to the Air Force Web site.

Hurricane Gustav, rated a Category 3 storm at 10 a.m, is expected to make landfall west of New Orleans Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

Area hospitals that may receive patients are OU Medical Center, Saint Anthony Hospital, Bone and Joint Hospital, Mercy Health Center, Integris Baptist Medical Center, Integris Southwest Medical Center, Norman Regional Hospital, Midwest Regional Health Center, Deaconess Hospital and Kindred Hospital, Smith said.

Brooke Cayot, Integris spokeswoman, said they've been preparing for Louisiana medical evacuees since Friday but will not know how many they will have until evacuees arrive in Oklahoma City.

“We train for mass influx of patients ... Oklahomans in need will not be affected," she said. "We’re just happy to help."

The patients would arrive at the Air National Guard base at Will Rogers World Airport and would be reassessed following arrival to see if the flight worsened any of the patients’ conditions before being transferred by ambulance to the local hospitals.

Gov. Brad Henry announced today that Oklahoma can receive evacuees to be housed at the old Lucent Technology Center in Oklahoma City, according to a state Department of Emergency Management news release issued this afternoon. State and city officials are working together to render the facility suitable for temporary mass-care shelter.

Henry on Saturday declared a state of emergency in Oklahoma, a precursor to requesting federal disaster aid if evacuees are sent to the state.

Red Cross officials in Tulsa prepared four shelters available for evacuees, and its volunteers have been put on call. Red Cross officials in Central Oklahoma on Friday sent a truck full of supplies and a team of four to a staging area in Texas, part of a nationwide effort by the disaster relief agency to move assets near the Gulf Coast.

State Emergency Management spokeswoman Michelann Ooten said Sunday morning Oklahoma officials were on standby in the event the state receives evacuees of any kind. She said the state had not yet had to commit significant resources to relief efforts within or outside the state, but officials were preparing for whatever comes Oklahoma's way.

“This hurry-up-and-wait scenario is going to continue in a lot of ways for awhile,” Ooten said.

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