Reflections by a Hurricane Frances Evacuee

[Paul Farkas]

Chicago - Friday 9/03/04 7:00 PM CDT

I'm one of the lucky ones. My wife and I were able to fly out of South Florida before the mandatory evacuation notice for those living in Palm Beach County in harms way.


Walking on Rush Street in downtown Chicago among the sidewalk diners on a balmy late summer evening, it's hard to imagine the impending disaster that might happen in the next 72 hours to millions living in the southeast part of the USA. Many of our www.seniordoc.org members are in the path of Hurricane Frances and might be severely affected or at least inconvenienced.

The seniordoc.org server is located in Pompano Beach, FL that is on the direct course of the storrm. If that secure location housing the Wolf Bioscience server goes off line, the back up server in Chicago should take over within 5 minutes. If you happen to lose service for a time that is the reason. It has nothing to do with your system.

Our webmaster is esconced in New Orleans and should be monitering any problems. It will be an interesting week end.

Good luck to all who are in the line of fire with the wind, rain and flooding of Hurricane Frances. Let's hear about your experiences and lessons learned.

 

[Paul Farkas]

And now Hurricane Ivan the Terrible

Now 10 days later with power just restored in many communities another potential disaster is on the way. Many of our www.seniordoc.org members and their patients will be impacted by this latest threat.

Our web site is being monitered by me from Chicago and by our web master who is now is in Jackson, Missisippi. Let's hear how you were able to cope with these storms.

 

[Fred Von Gunten O. D.]

Ivan -- Is he coming?

In Naples FL, 3 days ago, I had all stops pulled for saftey. Every thing ready for the worst of all #5 storms. Each day I would arise
to check the internet weather. Yes! Each day the tracking of (Ivan) storm moved northwest by west away from Naples and southeasten Florida.Now,as I type this, the storm is in the middle of the Gulf. Projected to hit land fall somewhere in northern Florida.

When you go thru this for the 3rd time (Charley,Frances,and Ivan), You thank God that He will watch over you in anything that may occur. (Optometry is important,however, these Storms are real, and maybe our Optometric storms need to be placed in perspective).

Fred

 

[Paul Farkas]

So long Ivan

Hurricanes Charlie, Frances and Ivan have impacted millions along the eastern third of our nation. Hundreds of optometric practices had to close with minor inconveniences of power outages or major flooding problems.

On the positive side moving the Wolf Bioscience server to our alternate secure facility in Chicago meant not an instant loss of service for thousands of internet clients. As usual, www.seniordoc.org ran without a moment of down time.

One interesting side note is that this has been the first true test of PatientWire during a partial national emergency. The system operated flawlessly.

As a result although hundreds of ODs had to shut their doors, those with e commerce and the automated phone system had at least a portion of the practice operating and generating income. This came as most pleasant surprise to PatientWire clients.

Is the 24/7 capability of e commerce and an automated phone system worth as little as a $1 a day for modern patient communication? Learn more by visiting www.patientwire.com.

 

[Paul Farkas]

Here we go again!

The 9/25/04 edition of the New York Times says it best...

"4th Hurricane Is Threatening East Florida

By REUTERS

Hundreds of thousands of people were told to leave their homes as Hurricane Jeanne approached Florida for what could be a record fourth hurricane hit in a year."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/25/national/25storm.html?th

 

[Christine Hair]

I'm on the west coast of Florida now on extern and we've lost power a few times but are doing fairly well. I moved in four days after charlie and have been here through Frances, Ivan and now Jeanne.

I have many family members in FL and am on my way next weekend to help a cousin in port st lucie repair her home (she's got major flood damage) ...

Paul, if you know of any ODs in the tampa area that need a hand.. PM me and let me know.

 

[Paul Farkas]

ODs helping ODs

A letter that arrived from the President of the Florida Optometric Association who wrote...

"September 30, 2004

TO: OPEN LETTER TO MEMBERS
FROM: James W. Cobb, Jr., O.D., F.A.A.O.
President, FOA

Over the past six weeks we have experienced a historic series of hurricane disasters in Florida. Our members and patients have faced difficult times from the effects of Hurricanes Charley (August 13), Frances (September 5), Ivan (September 16), and Jeanne (September 25). The challenges of survival and rebuilding will require a long-term recovery effort by all citizens in the State of Florida. Floridians have proven to be survivors in the past and we will emerge from the disasters as a stronger and more determined people.

As President of the Florida Optometric Association, I want to bring you up to date on our efforts to assist our membership. As many of you will recall, several years ago, Hurricane Andrew made landfall in South Florida and caused massive destruction. At that time The Florida Optometric Association recognized that during times of natural disaster, many of our members might require some form of assistance to aid in their recovery. Florida Optometric Assistance Team [F.L.O.A.T.] was created and organized as a special standing committee. The goal of F.L.O.A.T. was to distribute financial assistance on a goodwill basis to help our members meet deductibles, fund announcements to their patients or to meet other out of pocket expenses that might not be covered by insurance. Prior to Hurricane Charley, the good news was that FOA had a F.L.O.A.T. reserve balance of approximately $ 12,000.00. The bad news was that no one ever anticipated nor planned for the mass destruction we have seen from four major hurricanes in the past six weeks. Nearly every city and county in Florida has felt the effects of these storms and the damage is widespread across the State. Unfortunately, the resources of F.L.O.A.T. are inadequate to meet the needs of the vast number of our members that were affected by the various storms, and we have been unable to render goodwill assistance payments to our membership. We are developing a set of protocols to provide F.L.O.A.T. with a method to distribute the funds we have available on an equitable basis.

The Florida Optometric Association stands ready to help Florida Optometrists in any way possible. Please let us know if you or any of our colleagues have sustained significant damage from the recent storms. An accurate assessment of affected optometrists will be very helpful in determining our plan of action for relief. We will continue to work with our partners in industry to find alternative methods of providing relief and assistance for affected Florida optometrists. Thanks to all of you for your continued strength and resolve to rebuild our communities and practices."