Hospitals across Mississippi said they were still in crisis Monday — not from fallout of Hurricane Ida, but because of the continued surge of COVID-19 patients.
Despite massive power outages across the state as the historic storm ripped through, several Mississippi hospitals reported having little to no disruption of care because of the severe weather. One hospital in Pike County lost power for several hours, but generators kept the storm from affecting patients.
Still, intensive care units across Mississippi remain at or near capacity as hospitals manage staff shortages and high numbers of COVID-19 patients. Doctors, nurses and hospital staff continue to pull long shifts to manage the ongoing stress of a health care system that doesn’t have enough workers.
“In south Mississippi and throughout the state, we are in crisis,” said April LaFontaine, Gulfport Memorial Hospital’s chief administrative officer. “Our hospital was full before the hurricane, and we’re still full now.”
Memorial had 240 patients Monday, including 88 with COVID-19. More than two dozen were hooked up to ventilators.
Ida walloped southern Louisiana, leaving all of New Orleans without power. Mississippi hospitals say they’ve been more fortunate with little disruption, even as more than 75,000 Mississippians remained without power by Monday at 5 p.m.
Vaccine and testing clinics have been closed across the state, with many planning to resume care Tuesday. Emergency rooms remained open Sunday and Monday, even when the worst of Ida downed power lines and flooded roadways.
LaFontaine’s biggest concern remains COVID-19 spread, especially during a time when people want to help their neighbors by sharing power or cleaning up debris.
“People in this community want to do the right thing and want to do the neighborly thing and help their neighbors clean up,” she said. “But if people have COVID, or suspect they have COVID, the more neighborly thing to do is not share the love in that matter.”
In Jackson, neither University of Mississippi Medical Center or Baptist Memorial Hospital weathered damages, power outages or patient care disruptions related to Hurricane Ida.
Admissions were paused at UMMC’s field hospitals — which are set up inside parking garages — Monday morning while the storm passed over Jackson. They resumed accepting patients by 3 p.m.
Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in McComb was without power for nearly 12 hours overnight Sunday into late Monday morning, but was able to rely on generators until power returned Monday at 11:45 a.m. The hospital lost power again Monday afternoon because of a downed electrical pole.
Pike County, where the hospital is located, continued to have one of the highest numbers of people without power in the state late Monday afternoon.
Singing River Health System, which has three Gulf Coast hospitals, reported no major disruptions. It had one of its slowest emergency room days Sunday than it has had in the last six weeks, officials said.
Hospitals are hoping there is not an influx of patients who come in because of accidents during storm clean up or driving before debris is cleaned from roadways.
“We need to keep ERs clear for our first responders,” LaFontaine said.
More than 100,000 Mississippi customers are without power on Monday morning as Tropical Storm Ida tracks across the entire state of Mississippi.
Widespread power outages were expected across the state as the center of the storm — where the highest winds and heaviest rains are located — takes aim for central and north Mississippi.
“Damaging winds, especially in gusts, will continue to spread inland near the track of Ida’s center into southwestern Mississippi through this morning and early afternoon. These winds will likely lead to widespread tree damage and power outages,” a National Weather Service update read.
Two major companies — Entergy and Mississippi Power — provide electricity to a majority of Mississippi’s residents. Additionally, 26 regional electric power associations provide service to more than 1 million Mississippians.
Mississippi Today political reporters Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender discuss medical marijuana with Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, who has been leading the negotiations with Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Brandon, in hopes of reaching a compromise between the two legislative chambers on the issue.
Adam Ganucheau: Welcome to The Other Side, Mississippi Today’s political podcast. I’m your host, Adam Ganucheau. The Other Side lets you hear directly from the most connected players and observers across the spectrum of politics in Mississippi. From breaking news to political strategy to interviews with candidates and elected officials, we’ll bring you facts, perspectives and context that helps you cut through the noise and understand all sides of the story.
Bobby Harrison: I’m Bobby Harrison, political reporter for Mississippi Today, and I’m here with my colleague Geoff Pender, another political reporter. And Geoff’s coming off the heels of being in endless tax hearings for the past few days. But now we’re going to talk about medical marijuana and maybe some other issues with state Senator Kevin Blackwell. Senator Blackwell represents DeSoto County. I think he’s in his second term. He’s a Medicaid committee chairman, but some way he has taken on the mantle of being sort of the Senate go-to guy on medical marijuana. So that’s primarily what we’re going to talk to him about today. So Senator Blackwell, thanks for being here.
Kevin Blackwell: Thank you for having me.
Geoff Pender: Good talking with you again, Senator Blackwell. I guess first off, I’ll ask the question that you’ve probably heard a million times this summer. It appears to be the question of the summer. Where are the Senate and the House as far as working out a deal on medical marijuana?
Kevin Blackwell: Well, I kind of get tired of saying this, but we’re getting very close. And I’m sure the folks who are out there who are wanting to use these products for medical needs and certainly for the kids with some of their seizure disorders frustrating for them. But we are working every day on this trying to advance to get to the point where we can present something to the governor.
Geoff Pender: Sure. I know you, you and your House counterpart had both at times expressed hope that there could even be a special session called, which the governor would have to do, but that that could be accomplished in August.
We’re here at the end of August. I guess that’s perhaps been pushed back a little bit, but do you still think we’re in special session territory? Are we getting so close to the regular that it might should wait?
Kevin Blackwell: No, I think we can still get this done. We’re a couple of weeks off of my schedule where I’d hoped we would be but actually Representative Yancey and I met yesterday. We actually did a tour of University of Mississippi’s cannabis program and talked to some of their folks over there. But then later on that day, I did have an opportunity to talk to the governor to kind of let him know where we were in the process and that we’re getting extremely close and, you know, we’d have something soon to him for his office to review.
I think it’s still very possible here in the early parts of September to get something done,
Bobby Harrison: Senator Blackwell for sorta just a person not familiar with the legislative process, they might be saying, “What the heck? Medical marijuana passed by overwhelming margin, and all the leadership in the House and Senate, the governor say they’re in favor of a medical marijuana law.”
So they say, “What’s the hold up?” But I mean, there’s a lot of details other than just saying we’re going to approve medical marijuana. Can you just kind of speak to that?
Kevin Blackwell: Sure. There’s a lot of issues with this. Now, when 65 had passed, there wasn’t a lot of really substance, and the initiative left a lot of the rule making and regulations to the department of health.
And I think they did an excellent job of coming up with some initial rules and regs. So what we’re trying to do is go through, and I think the bill that we’re presenting is going to be better than 65. And so there’s a lot of little issues that you have to address. And as we go through the process— and Bobby, I know both you and Geoff follow the legislative process.
So you start off with the bill today and the way it ends up is totally different at the end. And at times there’s language that starts off getting moved, gets added back, gets removed again. And it’s just part of that ugly sausage lawmaking process we go through.
Geoff Pender: Senator, one thing I wanted to ask you about, it’s kind of as we speak today on Friday, this is kind of breaking news. Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson has sent a letter I think to the AG’s office and copied lawmakers essentially saying that, you know, he sees that marijuana be it medical or it’s still a schedule drug under federal law, still illegal under federal law. And essentially he just doesn’t see how his office could participate in overseeing growers or licensing or whatnot.
Is that a potential problem or are you guys still perhaps looking to department of ag for some oversight, or is that something that we’re considering at this point?
Kevin Blackwell: I have not had the opportunity to sit down and talk with the commissioner about his concerns, but as it is now we have three state agencies overseeing the program, and that would be the department of ag, department of health and department of revenue. And each of those agencies we’ve assigned some different sets of responsibilities. And for instance, the department of ag would oversee the cultivators and the processors, transporters and any disposal entities. And I think responsibilities fall within the line of what the department of ag does.
This is an agricultural product even though we’re going to be using it for medicinal purposes. And so that’s on the cultivator’s side. And then on the processor side, they’re taking that product and making food products out of it, whether it be liquid or solid foods. And again, I think that falls under some of the responsibilities of the department of ag.
Bobby Harrison: So not to put you on the spot, Senator Blackwell, but it may come down to an issue of whether Commissioner Gipson wants to violate federal law or state law.
Kevin Blackwell: You know I’m not an attorney. I’ll leave that to the attorneys to haggle out, but it hasn’t seemed to be a problem in other states that have utilized their department of ag for a role in their processes.
Geoff Pender: Let me ask you. I know you and Representative Yancey had been a little bit hesitant of giving too many specifics of where you stand on legislation, but some of the broad strokes that have been talked about in the past come to mind whether to allow smoking of marijuana, whether to allow people to grow a limited number of plants in their homes if they’re certified for a medical condition.
Have you worked out those things? Are there any of those details you could give at this point?
Kevin Blackwell: Well, I’ve said before, we have talked about those those issues. They’re not dead at the present time, but, you know, we’re still negotiating back and forth, kind of how both chambers feel about those positions.
Bobby Harrison: Yeah. And just for background, y’all are doing this sort of intense negotiation because the governor and I think mostly everybody in the legislative process agrees that y’all don’t want to call a special session. Y’all want a special session to deal with this, but you want to have pretty much a consensus reached before you go into that special session.
And that still doesn’t guarantee that it won’t be changed in the special session, but that’s kind of where y’all are. I mean the other issues are taxes, I mean, it’s just a litany of issues that y’all have.
Kevin Blackwell: Yes, sir. They certainly are. And that’s what kind of has drug this process out. Since Representative Yancey has been working with me, I think we’ve made great strides.
He’s been excellent to work with. He has made a number of suggestions, which I think is gonna make the bill better. And you know, it’s just a process that we have to go through. And certainly we’ve talked about taxes, we’ve talked about smoke, we talked about home grow. We’ve talked about, you know, THC levels.
We talked about possession amounts. So there there’s a whole number of issues that we’re trying to consider.
Geoff Pender: Sure. Y’all on the Senate side, you held some pretty informative hearings over the summer. And one thing I found pretty fascinating was y’all communicated with some folks from other states that have been there and done this.
What were some of the big takeaways you got from that? From talking with folks in Utah or Oklahoma or other places?
Kevin Blackwell: Well, it’s been an educational process. This isn’t just like throwing out a bill, and I think you mentioned this earlier and saying, “Hey, we’ve got medical cannabis.”
There are a lot of considerations that we need to take into place. And so one of the things we’ve done is to go in and take a look at what other states have done. I think there’ve been 38 states that have passed, and I think maybe four territories that have passed medical marijuana. So, what we’re trying to do is go in and take a look and pick kind of the best from each state.
I have spoken a number of times with Senator Vickers from Utah. He is the one that kind of drafted their bill. They have some very strict guidelines and I think we’re looking to be a little looser, but looser than them, looser than Alabama, but not as wild as Oklahoma.
Geoff Pender: Yeah. The Oklahoma folks y’all talked with that was pretty interesting, some of the issues they’re seeing there.
Kevin Blackwell: That’s right. And so what we’re trying to do is get through and learn from some of these other states that, you know, were ahead of us, some by a decade or more, and just trying to make sure. You know, I think Senator Vickers and I think the representative from Oklahoma said this, “We’re going to be tweaking this every year from now on.” Science is going to change.
i think social attitude’s going to change. So we’re always going to be tweaking this bill or this cannabis bill in some form or fashion, I think for legislatures to come.
Bobby Harrison: Senator Blackwell, if you can’t answer this or don’t feel comfortable answering this right now, I understand, but I get paid to ask questions so let me ask this. I noticed a story out of The Daily Journal in Tupelo. Senator McMahan, one of your colleagues up there talked about potentially a 7% sales tax and a 10% excise tax. But, I mean, I think there was some other stuff to come out after that.
I mean, that’s not really what y’all are looking at right now in terms of taxes. Can you speak to that? Or if you don’t want to just tell me to shut up.
Kevin Blackwell: Since I don’t get paid to answer questions, we’re looking at a regular sales tax and we’re having discussions about if there’s going to be any excise tax. And at the current time, it would not be in that 10% range. It would be less.
Geoff Pender: Sure, sure. I’m just curious .I know you talk with a lot of your colleagues and the leadership, and I don’t know if you know where it stands on the House side, but just on the Senate side do you foresee this being relatively easy to get people on board with and agree to, or is this something that even in a special session is going to be what they call a knock down drag out trying to agree on all this? How difficult is it going to be to get folks together?
Kevin Blackwell: Well, if you go back to our regular session, you know, I passed some form of medical cannabis bill three times. You know, we’re subject to the two-thirds vote on it. So you know, voting was tight back then. Part of the reason voting was tight was because of the Initiative 65, and proponents were fighting us. And really all our bill did was to provide some sort of insurance policy in the event that the Supreme Court did strike down 65 it’d be a program in place. As we know, the bill died over in the House, subsequently the Supreme Court overruled Initiative 65. So we have no program, and so that’s why we’re trying to kind of expedite something, if you would, to get it in place. So going to your question about the difficulty, I think there’s going to be a little bit of challenge, but I think for the most part the members of the Senate are going to try to fulfill the needs of the people, the voters. And I think there will certainly be discussion, but I believe we’ll pass the bill with a little greater margin and skin of our teeth like we did the last three times.
Geoff Pender: Sure Senator, one thing I’ve appreciated, I’ve heard you say a couple of times I think this is true that we hear a lot from the business advocates of the politics, you name it, but at the heart of this are some very sick people, some patients that need some relief. You guys getting input from them? I know maybe it’s hard to hear through all the noise on this, but are they still there at the focus of what y’all are working on?
Kevin Blackwell: Absolutely. That’s my main focus is for the patients, and in particular the children. Some of these kids with these seizures that they have, I mean, it just breaks your heart.
I’ve seen some pictures. Actually I thought one child was abused at school or something. And he had black eyes and, no, that was just from him falling down on the ground with the darn seizure. The parents of these children have reached out to me. A number of the We are The 74 reached out as well as people that supported Initiative 65.
And while a handful have been inappropriate on social media, the other handful has been courteous and have reached out to me. I’ve met with them. I think they understand that I am trying to work on their needs. And you know, we’ve used input from some of these folks into the bill, in fact, some of their suggestions. So that still remains my focus as far as trying to get something done for these these patients.
Bobby Harrison: Senator Blackwell, along those lines, you’re a businessman in DeSoto County. You’re a Medicaid committee chair. How did you become sort of the point person on medical marijuana in the Senate?
Kevin Blackwell: Well, it kind of goes back. Back in 2017 I had constituents, couple of constituents, come to me, and one of the gentlemen had recently lost his wife to cancer. And about that time, Arkansas I think they were passing their bill for medical cannabis. And he wanted to see if would I mind sponsoring the bill, and I did in 2018 and it got no traction got no interest.
So I didn’t bother refiling the bill. So it’s been something that I’ve supported. You know, philosophically, I’ve been in healthcare all my life and certainly want to make sure there’s different alternatives for folks. And so in this case, I know there’s going to be some stereotypes that people have with people who use cannabis, but it is a medicinal product.
And there’s a lot of patients who can get relief from it, so just us pushing this forward I believe we’re going to get there this fall. But I guess more to your question, when we had the, I guess, the COVID response and the initiative process was moving forward, we thought we’d try to get something in place.
But at that time, so this is in 2020, and but we were limited, even though we had an extended session, to what we could take up. It had to just be COVID related. And although I did find articles that suggested that medical cannabis helped alleviate some symptoms of COVID, such as anxiety and stress, this wasn’t enough for us to bring that bill forward in 2020. So when we rolled around after the election in November, a number of us had concerns— I’m one of them— about putting a product such as cannabis in our constitution. I mean, once it goes in, you can’t fix it unless you have another referendum.
Bobby Harrison: Opposed to just regular law.
Kevin Blackwell: Yeah, that’s correct. So, you know, there was a lawsuit filed, so it was basically 50/50. So we decided in January to go ahead and try to put something out just in case the Supreme Court did strike it down, which ultimately they did, but unfortunately we didn’t have a bill there to put in place, which brings us back full circle to today in our discussion.
Bobby Harrison: And real quick just to kind of wrap things up, you talked about the narrow margin you passed the bill in the Senate during the 2021 session. But at that time because of legislative rules, you were having to get a two-thirds vote, but this coming, whether it’s special session or an upcoming session, it’d just be a majority vote to pass medical marijuana and put it in general law.
Am I correct about that?
Kevin Blackwell: No, sir, because of the tax.
Bobby Harrison: Oh, it’s three-fifths vote. That’s right.
Kevin Blackwell: Yeah, I’m sorry. It’s three-fifths not two-thirds.
Bobby Harrison: So it’d still be a little bit easier as far as vote margin.
Well, we still need I think about 30 if all 52 members are there, and we don’t.We’ve had two resignations or one retirement and one resignation, so that puts us down to 50.
I think I need about 30 to pass it.
Geoff Pender: Sure. Well certainly we hope to keep in touch with you and please keep us posted. Like I said, this has been the I guess you’d say the question of the summer, perhaps when we might see see this move forward, but we really appreciate you talking with us and giving us an update and hopefully we’ll talk with you soon again about it.
Bobby Harrison: Yeah. Thank you, Senator Blackwell.
Kevin Blackwell: Well, and if I can add on, upon passage of this bill we have some requirements that the department of health start issuing licenses or cards, certifying providers as well as patients. And then within 60 days you know, we expect to start issuing licenses to the cultivators, processors and dispensaries. So we’ve got some timelines on here to move this forward as rapidly as feasibly possible.
Bobby Harrison: Senator Blackwell, we appreciate it. We really appreciate you doing this.
Geoff Pender: Yes, sir. Thank you.
Kevin Blackwell: Thank you.
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Ida, the historic storm that slammed much of Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, crossed into southwestern Mississippi as a tropical storm early Monday morning, threatening to dump heavy rains and produce widespread wind damage across the Magnolia State.
More than 100,000 Mississippians were without power Monday at 5 a.m. after the storm affected south Mississippi and Louisiana, and widespread power outages were expected as the center of the storm — where the highest winds and heaviest rains are located — takes aim for central and north Mississippi.
“Damaging winds, especially in gusts, will continue to spread inland near the track of Ida’s center into southwestern Mississippi through this morning and early afternoon. These winds will likely lead to widespread tree damage and power outages,” a National Weather Service 4 a.m. update read. “As Ida moves inland, considerable flooding impacts as possible… .”
#Ida is now a Tropical Storm but the threat to Mississippi is far from over. Hunker down today if you don’t have to be on the roads. Flash flooding, damaging winds and tornadoes are possible. https://t.co/S8pq7xuJqepic.twitter.com/6vDaAKzmSP
Tropical storm force winds were already being reported across much of central Mississippi by Monday at 5 a.m., and conditions are expected to deteriorate into the day. The storm, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Louisiana, is expected to move over central Mississippi on Monday morning and north Mississippi on Monday evening.
The storm has already left catastrophic damage in Louisiana and south Mississippi. Many homes and businesses in south Louisiana were completely destroyed or greatly damaged. At least one death has been reported: in Prairieville, Louisiana, about 30 miles southeast of Baton Rouge, where a person died after a tree fell on a home.
More than 1 million Louisiana residents were without power by early Monday morning. This includes most residents in the city of New Orleans, which experienced hurricane force winds and a failure of its electrical grid.
The worst of the hurricane also affected the Mississippi Gulf Coast and other south Mississippi counties on Sunday and early Monday. Storm surge and flash flooding overtopped many roads in Hancock and Harrison counties — including U.S. Highway 90 — and there were several reports of severe wind damage to structures along the Mississippi Coast.
On Sunday evening, the National Weather Service issued an alert for low-lying areas of Bay St. Louis, Waveland and Diamondhead: “Plan for extreme life-threatening storm surge flooding greater than 9 feet above ground.”
Gov. Tate Reeves on Saturday issued a state of emergency before Ida made landfall. The prospects of the storm were made worse by most Mississippi hospitals already being full with COVID-19 patients.
“We are better prepared today than we were for Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago, but this time we also are dealing with a major pandemic,” said Jim Craig, director of health protection with the Mississippi State Department of Health. Craig urged people going to shelters and to other places to continue to wear masks and take other precautions to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Shelter locations can be found at the MSEMA.org.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves issued a state of emergency on Saturday “to put assets in place” to deal with Hurricane Ida, the strong storm that will affect Mississippi and Louisiana starting on Sunday.
Reeves said that the center of the storm is expected to hit neat Morgan City, La., — about 85 miles west of New Orleans — and present significant dangers to Mississippi in terms of heavy rain and strong winds throughout most of the state and strong storm surge on the Gulf Coast.
“This is a storm that is unlike normal in that it popped up literally less than 48 hours ago as a tropical depression, and here we are talking about it hitting landfall as early 2 p.m. tomorrow,” Reeves said on Saturday afternoon during a news conference at the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Rankin County.
While rainfall could be as much as 20 inches in parts of southwest Mississippi and the Gulf Coast, the governor said that the rain could be as much as 4 inches to 8 inches throughout the state.
In addition, widespread power outages are anticipated across the state as the center of the storm moves through central and northern Mississippi, said Stephen McCraney, MEMA executive director.
“We are better prepared today than we were for Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago, but this time we also are dealing with a major pandemic,” said Jim Craig, director of health protection with the Mississippi State Department of Health. Craig urged people going to shelters and to other places to continue to wear masks and take other precautions to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Shelter locations can be found at the MSEMA.org.
Hurricane Katrina hit exactly 16 years from Sunday — the date Hurricane Ida is supposed to come ashore. Katrina’s landfall resulted in unprecedented destruction both in Mississippi and Louisiana.
Reeves said the forecast could change, but as projected Saturday afternoon, the center of the storm could enter Mississippi by early Monday morning, be near Vicksburg by Monday around 7 p.m., and be near Batesville by Tuesday at 7 a.m.
The governor said storm surge on the Mississippi Gulf Coast could rise to as much as 11 feet.
With the state of emergency declaration, the governor said local, state and federal rescue teams will be on standby, and he said he has been in conversations with President Joe Biden to formulate plans to transport patients as needed to deal with hospitals that have been over capacity because of COVID-19 and could be called upon to treat additional patients because of the powerful hurricane.
Craig said state health department COVID-19 testing and vaccinations will be suspended at some locations on Monday in south and central Mississippi and would reopen depending on conditions.
Reeves said the path of the storm could still change in the coming hours, but that it is expected to reach central Mississippi, including the Jackson Metro area, on Monday.
Traffic on Interstate 55, Interstate 10 and other thoroughfares in Mississippi was heavy by Saturday afternoon as people evacuated from south Louisiana, New Orleans and low-lying areas of Hancock County in Mississippi.
McCraney urged Mississippians to take backroads and leave the crowded interstates to the people from Louisiana fleeing the storm.
“We know our backroads,” McCraney said.
Ida on Saturday reached Category 2 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, with winds from 96mph to 110mph, capable of extensive damage. Forecast give the possibility of Ida reaching a Category 4 before landfall, which would mean winds from 130 mph to 156 mph, bringing likely catastrophic damages to homes and buildings.
Wind warnings for south Mississippi were for sustained 74 mile per hour winds — at the bottom end of hurricane strength and still capable of extensive damage. For Mississippi, there is also a threat of tornadoes being spawned throughout much of the state as the storm moves inland. Saturday forecasts warned that hurricane-force gusts could extend well inland into Mississippi, and heavy rain and gusts up to 60 miles per hour through central Mississippi.
In Saturday’s forecasts, Mississippi was expected to be spared a direct hit, but to be on the east side — the worst, particularly for flooding rains — of Ida, and the storm is expected to track through western and central Mississippi as it moves inland. The National Weather Service extended tropical storm warnings from Lake Charles, La., through Mobile, Ala.
Forecasts also warned of storm surge through the Mississippi Coast from 7 feet to 11 feet, which would bring major flooding to low-lying areas. The forecast also predicts heavy rainfall for parts of Mississippi — up to 20 inches in isolated areas.
Mississippi Gulf Coast hospitals, overrun with COVID-19 patients and understaffed to handle the growing health care crisis, are preparing for another potential disaster: Hurricane Ida.
As Ida churns toward the Gulf states, Coast hospitals say they’re still waiting on the additional nurses called in by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to help manage the COVID-19 patient surge. Severe weather brought on by a hurricane — even if Ida doesn’t make direct landfall in Mississippi — could add even more stress to an already struggling health care system.
“Access to care is a national issue, but a hurricane makes it even worse,” said Randall Cobb, the Singing River Health System’s director of facilities and support. “Hospitals are at capacity. In our emergency departments, there are multiple-hour wait times.”
Ida is forecast to be a Category 3 or 4 storm by the time it makes landfall late Sunday or early Monday, bringing the possibility of deadly conditions, long-lasting power outages, flash flooding and high-speed winds. The storm’s projected path as of Friday afternoon places its landfall in Louisiana, though that prediction could change.
Mississippi’s three Gulf Coast counties — Hancock, Harrison and Jackson — were under hurricane watches on Friday afternoon.
“Having a large patient census during any storm is never desirable, as it requires us to house more resources than normal, which equals more people in harm’s way,” said Gulfport Memorial’s safety officer Ken McDowell. “Essentially, we are implementing two emergency plans at one time for both the pandemic and the hurricane.”
Gov. Tate Reeves announced on Tuesday about 1,000 additional health care workers would be deployed across 61 Mississippi hospitals due to the COVID staffing shortages. Singing River’s hospitals in Ocean Springs, Gulfport and Pascagoula are expecting 53 nurses, but they have yet to arrive.
“We just don’t know a time frame of how soon that will be,” said the hospital system’s spokeswoman Sarah Duffey.
Gulfport’s Memorial Hospital had 83 patients with COVID-19 as of Friday afternoon, 22 of whom were on ventilators. Memorial said they, too, were still waiting on the MEMA clinicians to arrive.
Reeves said hospitals would start receiving the new staffers within nine days of their request. Singing River has welcomed about a dozen new respiratory therapists and two paramedics so far.
But it’s the additional nurses the hospitals need to actually grow the number of patients they can care for, Duffey said.
Cobb said because of the staffing shortages and already long waits, Gulf Coast residents need to be aware of whether their health concerns during the hurricane are more appropriate for a special needs shelter — which will have generated power during outages and oxygen canisters on hand — rather than emergency rooms.
“If you cannot breathe at all, absolutely come to the hospital,” Cobb said. “But if you’re running low on oxygen or concerned you’re going to run low, the counties have put some things in place so they’re prepared.”
Hospitals will continue to triage care following any major storm. That means new patients are treated in order of the severity of their ailment. The capacity issues are all the more reason to heed any travel warnings or mandatory evacuation early next week.
“Stay off the road and stay safe, unless you have a true emergency,” said Memorial’s chief administration office April LaFontaine. “This will allow for us to keep emergency rooms and facilities available for patients who really need them.”
Cobb said Singing River’s hospitals prepare to have a week’s worth of supplies and power should a direct hit devastate the region. Memorial has its emergency generators ready with five extras on standby.
