Physicians weather Isabel and respond in its wake

Early reviews indicate that anti-terrorism resources aided public health preparedness for this natural disaster.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Oct. 13, 2003.

Seaborn Blair III, MD now commutes to his clinic by boat. Last month's Hurricane Isabel washed away the road from his home to where he works, the HealthEast Family Care office in Hatteras Village, a small town on the end of Hatteras Island off the North Carolina coast. Damage to the clinic was minimal, but numerous houses as well as the island's pharmacy were destroyed.

"The practice is fine, and we're seeing a lot of people who were injured during the storm and during clean-up," said Dr. Blair. "And we're having to fly in a lot of medicines."

Dr. Blair is just one of many physicians along the East Coast from North Carolina to Delaware to feel the serious impact of the hurricane. The storm had winds of 160 mph, greater than any hurricane in decades, and dumped more than seven inches of rain in some areas, according to the National Weather Service.

Before Isabel, physicians scrambled to fill patient requests for extra medicines and looked for safe places to store vaccines and other perishables. Many offices were closed for a day or more.

"We were also concerned about the effect of power surges on our x-ray equipment, but there was not much we were going to be able to do about that," said Mitchell Miller, MD, a family physician based in Virginia Beach, Va. "By Monday, we were back in the office. But my own home hasn't had power restored yet. We have no hot water, and I've been trying to convince my three children that we're just on an extended camping trip."