Many thanks to Heidi Sandstrom, Associate Director, Pacific Southwest Region of NN/LM for information about how she and her staff and neighboring hospitals fared during the earthquake in Southern California yesterday.  Congratulations to Heidi’s staff members, who knew the appropriate response and followed it!  Heidi and her staff are fine, and she has spoken with the hospital librarian whose hospital is closest to the epicenter, and everything is fine there, too.  Heidi sent links to the story in the Los Angeles Times, as well as from the California HealthCare Foundation.  Note that the injuries reported happened when people “stampeded” out of a building, as opposed to following the procedure, which is to stay inside and get under a table or desk.  And in this case, the communication outages were caused by “network congestion” rather than damage to the systems.  Good lessons to add to the preparedness list!

Also see Heidi’s posts on emergency preparedness on their region’s newsletter, Latitudes.   Thanks, Heidi for the follow-up.  Even though no one had to call 1-800-DEV-ROKS this time, we appreciate your report.  Another good use for the Toolkit–we can let the whole Network know at once that you and your members are okay!