Snowfall reached 3 feet or higher in some areas, according to CNN. One of the hardest-hit areas was Glengary, W. Va., about 85 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., which preliminary figures show received more than 40 inches of snow, CNN reported.
Other areas that received significant amounts of snow include New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (31 inches), Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (29.2 inches, a record), Washington Dulles International Airport (28 inches), Newark, N.J. (28 inches), New York City’s Central Park (26.8 inches, the second-highest total since 1869) and Philadelphia (22 inches), according to CNN.
At least 27 people died in the storm, a quarter of a million people lost power and thousands of car crashes were reported, according to The Weather Channel. Millions of people made their way back to work Monday, but hundreds of flights are still cancelled, according to CNN.
Prior to the blizzard, hospitals throughout the East Coast took measures to prepare for emergency situations like this.
Here are six things to know about how hospitals and hospital employees addressed the storm.
1. Travel bans in many cities severely limited transit over the weekend. Baltimore, which had 29.2 inches of snow, implemented Phase III of its snow emergency plan, which bans all traffic except for emergency vehicles, according to The Weather Channel. The travel ban was in place until 6 A.M. Sunday morning. Hospitals were instructed to keep all staff in place for the duration of Phase III.
2. The Seven Hills Jeep Club in Lynchburg, Va., offered nurses at Lynchburg-based Centra Health rides to and from work during the storm, according to a report from The News and Advance. Nurses asked for rides to lesser-known Centra properties such as its retirement communities. As of 9 p.m. Thursday night, the group had 14 Jeeps transporting more than 50 nurses back and forth to work Friday, according to the report.
3. Employees at Highland-Clarksburg Hospital in Clarksburg, W.Va., went into “shelter in place” mode over the weekend due to the snowy roads, according to WDTV News. With nearly two feet of snow outside, several employees stayed at the facility for three consecutive days, while others carpooled to the hospital. Highland-Clarksburg Hospital continued to provide all normal services to all of its patients.
4. Numerous employees of Winchester (Va.) Medical Center also spent the weekend inside the hospital to care for patients and keep the hospital running, WMC COO Grady W. “Skip” Philips told the Winchester Star. Mr. Philips said the snow was “beautiful” for those who don’t work in healthcare, but for those who do, “it was a major inconvenience.” At the peak of the 30-hour storm, patient volume in WMC’s emergency department declined, but picked up again Sunday as the region began clearing out the snow.
5. One man, Paul Schaaf, a 49-year-old helicopter pilot for Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., traveled to work on his bicycle. He biked 7.5 miles to work for his overnight shift and planned to bike back to Arlington, Va., Monday morning, according to Reuters. “I have to get into work no matter what. And the best way to do it is on my bicycle with steel-studded snow tires,” Mr. Schaaf told Reuters.
6. In Maryland, hospital leaders contacted staff to ensure all medical contingencies would be covered, including keeping enough surgical personnel on hand, Karen Doyle, an incident commander for emergency operations at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, told The Baltimore Sun. Greater Baltimore Medical Center reported “no impact to operations,” Stacey McGreevy, an incident commander and administrator at the hospital, told the publication. Traffic to the emergency room waned during the worst of the storm, but has since returned to normal, Ms. McGreevy said.
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