California Union Nurses Help with Hurricane Michael Recovery

By SETH SANDRONSKY

Diane McClure is a Kaiser South Sacramento registered nurse and member of the California Nurses Association, a progressive labor union. She, with her union brothers and sisters, deployed to the Florida Panhandle to provide relief after Hurricane Michael made landfall with 155-miles-per-hour winds and storm surges up to 14 feet on Oct. 10. The CNA is part of the National Nurses United’s Registered Nurse Response Network, a national network of volunteer nurses who provided health care to Florida’s hurricane victims in conjunction with the International Medical Corps. McClure spoke by phone with The Progressive Populist in mid-October.

Seth Sandronsky: Please describe the nature of your post-Hurricane Michael relief mission in the Florida Panhandle.

Diane McClure: In rural Liberty County, about an hour west of Tallahassee, after a state of Florida briefing, we divided into teams before entering makeshift hospitals and shelters. We treated elderly and poor patients. One of the most common things that we saw was people coming who had lost electrical power and were low on oxygen. We provided them with oxygen supplied through generators. The state reassessed the areas of greater and lesser patients’ needs nightly. There were many groups providing relief.

SS: Describe the landscape in the Florida Panhandle after Hurricane Michael.

DM: There are huge, huge trees down, completely uprooted, with large limbs downed. Debris is everywhere. Electrical power is sporadic.

SS: How many patients are coming into the hurricane relief shelters?

DM: Some shelters have as many as 50 patients. The shelter that I worked at had very few patients initially but that changed.

SS: What spurred you to leave home to volunteer in the Hurricane Michael relief effort?

DM: Especially in this rural area, there were many poor and elderly people, some probably trapped and unable to get out and into shelters.

Volunteering is the least that we could do, given climate change and how quickly Hurricane Michael struck, with minimal notice. These people need our help.

[Prior to this hurricane, Florida’s GOP Gov. Rick Scott banned his staff from using the terms “climate change” and “global warming.” Ed.]

SS: How long were your shifts and where did you stay while off duty?

DM: We worked 12-hour shifts and stayed in the shelters along with the patients, relying upon generators for electricity. We slept in sleeping bags on cots.

SS: What can you say about the needs of people receiving drug and mental health treatment in the post-hurricane relief effort?

DM: It is concerning. Some people were running out of their prescription medications. Pharmacies opened for a few hours for patients to refill their prescriptions. Mental health patients without their medications can end up disoriented or lost, perhaps not know what they are doing.

SS: What surprised you the most in volunteering to help people after Hurricane Michael?

DM: This area was used to being prepared for hurricanes. However, this was the worst hurricane to hit the Florida Panhandle in 100 years.

SS: What are your final comments?

DM: A big problem is the displacement of people to places that are quite far from where they live (up to five hours). The elderly people feel isolated, stranded and away from their families. Also, many buildings were built to a code that could only handle winds up to 110 mph thus much destruction to the newer buildings.

Seth Sandronsky lives and works in Sacramento. He is a journalist and member of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. Email sethsandronsky@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, November 15, 2018

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