Jersey Hiradó, 1964 (45. évfolyam, 3-39. szám)
1964-04-10 / 15. szám
6 Anchorage Long Will Remember ‘Providence’ and the Earthquake By PATRICIA E. BURNS ANCHORAGE, Alaska (NC) — Let no one say a hospital is an inanimate, unfeeling mass of concrete and steel. I was in the new $6,000,000 Providence Hospital in Anchorage when a massive earthquake tried to still this monument of man to the healing arts and ease of suffering. I heard the five-story steel and blue structure, owned and operated by the Sisters of Charity of Providence, groan like a man racked with pain as the successive tremors shook its vitals. It was and is a living thing. I fell three times in moving 20 feet on the vibrating main floor. Interior and Exterior PAINTING 25 years experience. Reasonable prices. For estimate, call: Vincent Schillaci 587 - 2296 I admit to sheer terror as I felt no work, of man could withstand this terrible primal force, as I heard material crashing off shelves and walls. The wrenching, twisting action continued as did the low pitched moans in the suffering building, but it held on this nearly fatal Good Friday. The shattering blows began to ease. Confidence that the hospital might survive its agony slowly returned. Many of the nursing service employes on the upper four floors had families. Not a single nurse deserted her station to flee to the apparent security of open ground. They stayed with the hospital as did their patients. And, after the horror had ended, their hospital did not desert them. The 300-bed, badly damaged hospital at Elmendorf Air Force Base was evacuated in 18 minutes shortly after the quake ended, and patients were moved into barracks. The Alaska Native Hospital, also damaged, was heavily occupied and located on the edge of the severe damage area. The 40-bed Presbyterian Community Hospital was without water and power and was near the severe damage area. The 200-bed Alaska Psychiatric Institute sustained roof damage and was not geared for general patient care. That left only Providence Hospital to serve as a beacon of hope for the quake casualties. Sister Barbara Ellen, S.C., administrator, who never lost confidence that her hospital would weather nature’s worst test, ordered full-scale emergency operations. And she had emergencies of her own to meet. Initially all power was out, later was lost and all internal communications except the loud speaker were gone. Providence was a small besieged island in a sea of devastation—out of touch with Anchorage and the world. The auxiliary power plant hummed into action and there were lights for the surgeries and main corridor. Fire trucks were moved in and pumped water from a nearby creek into the hospital mains. Without water for the steam boilers, sterilizers and sanitation, a hospital is just another building. By the time the first evacuee from Presbyterian Hospital arrived, Providence was operational. The elevators had stopped running. This meant casualties had to be carried by stretcher and litter to the nursing floors. Screening and sorting was done in the emergency room area and then victims had to be moved outside to ascend a wide stairwell that would provide passage for litters. The first rush of patients were laid in a hallway on mattresses stripped from second floor beds. By 6:30—the quake hit at 5:37 p.m.—casualties were arriving at every entrance. Many of the essential supplies had been dumped onto floors, and had to be salvaged and sorted for use. Meanwhile, smaller tremors continued to rock the building. But they were mere trickles compared to the first giant blow. Volunteers from every walk of life poured into the main lobby, where they were assigned emergency tasks. The homeless, dazed and shocked and attracted by the hospital lights, were given hot coffee and mattresses on which to lie. All available doctors reported to the emergency room area and from there they fanned out to serve in surgeries, x-ray, laboratory. They were undaunted by the stream of injured. Nursing service workers from Presbyterian Hospital joined the Providence staff and volunteers to provide full coverage. There was no division of race or religion— only those needing help and those doing the helping! There was comfort for a stunned and broken city to hear the news via emergency radio broadcasts: “Providence is operating and caring for casualties.’’ Sister Barbara Ellen and her five nun assistants, supported by sisters from the Catholic junior high school, coordinated the task of keeping the hospital operating and caring for patients. Dr. Don Val Langston, chief of the hospital’s medical staff, directed the over-all medical effort and Dr. Fred Hillman, chief of surgery, supervised surgeons. At no time was there panic or hysteria among the patients, homeless or the personnel charged with their care. There was a time for everyone present when he or she thought, “Providence is going to live through this quake.” For Sister Barbara Ellen, a plucky, smiling nun of deep faith, who saw the hospital open in October,- 1962, the time came early. For some of the skeptics it did not come until Easter Sunday. Shortly after midnight, early on the morning of Holy Saturday, one elevator was operating and patients enjoyed the luxury of moving to the floors the easy way. Throughout the night practically all oi Anchorage remained dark, but the lights of Providence gave proof that Anchorage had not been totally extinguished. On Easter Sunday, St. Mary Residence, also owned by the Sisters of Charity of Providence, and operated as a nursing home, was evacuated of 30 patients. It was too near the damage zone. Thirty additional patients were moved into Providence. It cared for them as it did for all who needed help. “To single out any individual act of service or heroism would be a disservice to the hundreds who helped. As far as I am concerned, it was a night when heroism and sacrifice were commonplace,” said Sister Barbara Ellen. “The soldiers and airmen who provided every conceivable service and supplied every need, the electrician who repaired a pump to prevent flooding, the chaplains who gave the Last Rites to the dying and comforted the injured, the cooks who made coffee and Térjen ót gázfűtésre és élvezze mindazt a zajtalan, gondtalan kényelmet, amit csak ez a modern fűtőanyag képes nyújtani. Állandóan rendelkezésére áll. Megbízható. Olcsó. S a gázégőkkel és a fűtőberendezés ellenőrző készülékével kapcsolatos szolgálat díjmentes. Helyes volna, ha tervbe venné, hogy áttér a gázfűtésre. Ingyenes fűtési költségvetésért forduljon vízvezeték szerelőjéhez, egy gázfűtés berendezőhöz vapv a Puhlir: ^ervirehez PUBLIC SERVICE ELECTRIC AND GAS COIVIF Taxpaying Servant of a Great State April 10, 1964 Winners Listed In Traffic Safety Poster Contest Two additional winners in schools of the Diocese of Trenton were announced this week in the annual traffic safety poster contest sponsored by the Automobile Club of Central New Jersey. The first prize winner in the primary division, Martin Santalucia, second grade pupil in St. Stanislaus School, Sayreville, was announced earlier by Max D. Winget, director of traffic safety for the AAA unit in Trenton. Taking second place in the primary division was eight-year-old Peter Brander, third grade pupil in St. Brigid’s School, Peapack. In third place in the elementary group is Barbara Barron, 10, a fifth grader in Sacred Heart School, South Plainfield. All three posters will be entered in the national contest to be judged in Washington, D.C. State Department, Foreign Service Positions Available NEW YORK—United States Department of State personnel officers will be in New York City for two weeks beginning April 6 to scout for top people to fill overseas jobs in the United States Foreign Service as well as Department of State positions in Washington. Interviews will be held between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. in the News Building, 220 East 42d Street, Room 420. Secretaries with rapid shorthand and typing skills and several years of office experience will be given first consideration for both the Foreign Service and for vvasiungton. Opportunities also exist in the Foreign Service for communications clerks who have had military experience in encoding and decoding cryptographic messages. Applicants for the Foreign Service must be over 21, single with no dependents, American citizens for at least five years, able to pass State Department clerical and typing tests, pass a rigid physical and an intensive background investigation. In addition, they must be available for assignment to any one of some 300 American embassies and consulates abroad. Starting salaries range from $4,215 to $4,715 per year, plus allowances. To staff the Department of State in Washington, stenographers, typists and teletypists are needed. Applicants are required to pass the Civil Service clerktypist or clerk-stenographer examinations and undergo similar medical and background investigations. However, the minimum age is 18 and one may be married. Starting salaries range from $3,620 to $4,215 per year. sandwiches, the radio operators who linked us with the city, the engineers who kept the water and power on, all must share Providence’s victory along with Anchorage’s dedicated doctors and nurses,” the nun said. “We cannot properly thank the hundreds of persons, known and unknown, who made it possible for Providence to operate. I will issue individual citations to each known person who joined in our effort. It will say simply that the person named served in Providence Hospital on Good Friday and Holy Saturday in 1964. It will be enough for those who know the story of the inspired effort that brought us new life and hope on this Easter Sunday,” she added. A quake victim spoke for patients. He said as he was being wheeled into emergency surgery: “This hospital cost $6,000,000. Tonight, it would have been a bargain at 10 times that price.”
