Fire @ MindSay

By Erich Langer

Special to American Forces Press Service

July 8, 2008 - With the delivery of two large truckloads of medical equipment, hundreds of mothers-to-be soon will benefit from the opening of a refurbished maternity hospital in western Baghdad's Karkh district. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division managed the nearly $600,000 renovation, which includes a new heating, ventilating and air-conditioning system and electrical and mechanical upgrades.

Officials said the hospital had fallen into disrepair, receiving no upgrades and little maintenance during Saddam Hussein's regime. In fact, officials noted, no new hospitals were completed in Iraq since the mid-1980s.

"To date, GRD has completed 21 renovations at 18 hospitals across Iraq that will treat 15,000 patients per day," Army Brig. Gen. Jeffery Dorko, GRD commander, said. "Also, working with our government of Iraq partners, we have constructed 113 of 132 new primary health care centers that will treat 8,000 Iraqis each day. We still have more to achieve in helping provide health care to Iraqis, but we are making great strides in this important area."

The improving security situation is paying dividends, as the GRD Gulf Region Division and its contractors complete more and more construction projects. Dr. Eman A. Atta, Karkh's manager and hospital administrator, worked at Karkh Maternity for only six months, but has seen Baghdad and the neighborhood around the hospital improve dramatically.

"The security situation has improved greatly," Atta said. "It was very, very bad here for so long -- so bad that I refused delivery of vital medical equipment until it was safe from those who would rob and steal from the hospital."

Atta was painfully aware of the poor security situation after one large delivery of expensive diagnostic equipment that included X-ray machines and other high-end medical equipment was hijacked -- "stolen before it ever made it to the hospital," she said with anger and frustration in her voice.

"To keep this from happening again, Dr. Emad Sabry and I arranged to store the equipment in various secret locations around Baghdad until security improved," she said.

Iraqi army Maj. Hussain is in charge of security at and around the hospital, and echoed Atta's reflection of security in the neighborhood.

"It has gotten better; it is much safer here. My soldiers are always watching for any danger that would come to the hospital and its patients," he said.

"We hope to open the hospital to inpatient care, surgeries and deliveries within two months," said Sabry, an anesthesiologist and one of Karkh's 10 senior physicians. "The hospital still needs additional equipment --– all types from beds to incubators and most importantly the pharmaceuticals. The Ministry of Health has promised to provide these required items."

Army Sgt. 1st Class Hector Cruz, a construction representative from the GRD Central District, makes final checks on numerous hospital construction initiatives recently completed. He stays busy helping to manage scores of projects, and is frequently on construction sites four or five days each week.

"We rely heavily on our Iraqi engineers who are on project sites every day," he said. "They work directly with the contractors and provide our office with regular reports, photos and updates on project progress. We just couldn't do the job without them."

To minimize interruptions of essential hospital activities, the local Iraqi construction firm coordinated all construction work with the hospital and Atta.

Besides the HVAC and electrical upgrades, the renovation structural repairs, a reverse-osmosis water purification system, a new medical waste incinerator, a medical gases center, a nurse call system, a data communication network, a TV system, elevator upgrade, and a fire alarm with a firefighting extinguishing system.

"The new medical gases center is much improved over the old Iraqi way," Sabry said. "This is much more modern, efficient and safer, too. The old way had oxygen tanks in each of the rooms. Hospital staff had to frequently move and handle the tanks – very inefficient and more dangerous."

Cruz said the renovated facility is a vast improvement over the old one. "Previously, this was a facility in disrepair after years and years of neglect," he said. "But now, Karkh's patients will be able to come to the hospital and have their babies in a clean, secure functioning hospital. Dr. Atta and her staff will have the tools to provide full-spectrum medical care for women from a population of more than 250,000."

(Erich Langer is a public affairs specialist with the Gulf Region Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Iraq.)

Hi,

Does anyone know of any Fire songs that can be downloaded on the Internet? Even Itunes would suffice. Maybe a Fire Man song or a Fire Safety or Fire Fighter song.

It's for a presentation at work. Please post a link if you know of any.

We didn't take any pictures of the major damage.  Simply because we didn't go near the major damage and the fact we were detoured around the major damage and accidents. 

The first picture is of down trees near someones house.  They got really lucky none of their trees went on their house!

The second picture is the back of my van!  It was luckly a clean shatter break!  The bad thing about it was all the glass was IN my van!

The third picture is of one of the down trees at the zoo!

the fourth picture is a destroyed bean field and the fifth picture is a destroyed corn field.  The bean field MAY have a chance of coming back on it's own but nobody knows for sure!

The sixth picture is one of the rural fremont NE fire trucks we followed into Fremont!  That truck doesn't get used much and is usually for parade routes only but they keep it operational when something like this happens if they need more trucks like yesterday. 

The seventh picture is someone's house on a country road we attempted to take.  They had down trees all over the place, busted out windows, and all that tin in their yard is from someone's tin shed.  There was no houses near them and that tin lined their tree line and one peice of the tin was up on their roof! 

The eight picture is of the Platte River.  Looks real pretty huh!  Well this is a very rare picture of the Platte.  Most of the time the Platte is NOT this high and is full of sandbars.  As you can see it is very high and yes a few sandbars but you are careful you can usually ride a dirt bike, fourwheeler or even walk across the platte in certain areas!  Not this year!

The ninth picture is someone elses farm/ranch!  their over all house was okay but their field and picket fence that lead up to their house and their corn field destroyed!

The tenth picture is of the detour stop sign!  As you can see it was broken in half!

The eleventh picture is not a very good picture but it shows an over turned upside down irrigation system.  Every other field had one like this but this was the closet we could get to one!

We decided to go shopping before the zoo, my sister and I!  What a great day we had planned.  And it was going so well!  Out of the six major Thrift World Stores in the Metro area of Omaha, we hit two.  The two nicest ones with the Brand Name clothes!  One on the Northwest side of Omaha and one on the Southeast side of Omaha near the Zoo.

What a great way to end our mini camping trip that just turned in to being a mini stay at my sister's house due to the varying weather that kept popping up!  Instead of staying at the really nice free camp grounds we stayed at my sister's house for a few days, I wasn't going to chance being caught near a big man made lake that had extermly high levels near the banks of the camp ground!

Anyway, after a GREAT haul of a summer woredrobe for both kids from two different thrift shops and then treating the kids to lunch, we headed to Henery Dooley (sp?) Zoo for a nice afternoon.  It started out great!  We hit the Jungle, the Sea Lions, the Garden of Senses, the Cat House, part of the Avaiary, the Gorrila House, the Cat Complex, the feeding time for the smaller tropical birds, the Desert Dome, and the Giaraff House.  With smaller enclousers along the way of course!  Of course pictures are on here!  Enjoy!

While we were just ouside of the New Butterfly House and the Aquareme deciding which one we were going to go in first before we started heading to the town were my van was sitting so the kids and I could head home and my sister and her kids could head home, we heard the tornado sirins go off!  Now I know why so many ppl get killed in public places during storms!  The tornado sirns go off and the majority of the Zoo visitors head for the Goddess Dayum parking lots!  I kid you not!  Well being country girls, my sister and I herd the kids to the aquarememe (sp?) house under the canapoy and bust out our cell phones.  Each of us respectively calling our hubby's, asking them why the hell neither one of them called to tell us there was a storm system heading straight at Omaha!  We informed both of them that we were heading for the storm shelters in the Fish house and we would call once the storm passed.  Then we hearded the kids towards one of the Zoo Workers holding a door open to the basement of the complex leading to the exective offices and we were one of the first groups down. 

There were a few other ppl down there already but what we found the most funny out of this was that everyone single person down there including us, were NOT from Omaha persay but from the surrounding communities and areas!  We are NOT fools!  While the main secruity guy was telling us and the few zoo workers what the plan was, he was getting reports from the weather radio and the few of us that stopped and made calls.  Then he asked us to sit tight, while he and his other crew went outside to go round up the rest of the Zoo visitors and get them inside various zoo complexes till the storm passed.

We had a couple of upset kids of course, my daughter being one of them, and a lot of upset ppl, including ball players that stuck around after the College World Series before they went home.  Those of us from the midwest were laughing and joking and calming the kids down.  We kept telling everyone that we are in one of the safest buildings and don't worry about the animals they know what to do and the zoo workers were making sure they were safe also.  Once all the zoo workers got in the main secruity guy came back in to our basement and said it was pitch black out and winds up to 90-100 miles per hour and they would not know if a tornado hit till after it was clear out.  The lights did go out and thankfull the generator kicked on right away.

After we got the okay to clear out and leave the zoo, we got some pictures of the damage done in side the zoo.  Down trees and one of the heavy glass safety entrance doors to the Wild Kingdom Palliviallion was completely blown off and laid gently down in front of the Pavillion!  I missed that picture! There was hail everywhere!  We had to make our way out of the Eastern Side of Omaha back towards the I-10 exit so we could head to Freemont NE which is an hour Northeast of Omaha, where my van was sitting!  Damage everywhere!  While driving the news said, the Art Festival got hit hard downtown Omaha, there was a boat taken off of a dock in the Missiouri and was dropped on the roof of a house, trees blocking roads, and down electrical poles all over Omaha downtown/metro area!  We stopped on the outskirts of town to feed the kids and the Taco Johns we hit had running TVS.  The area heading to Fremont NE was hit hard also and a semi rig was entangled in electrical wires!  Cars of the road, rigs off the road, and major damage.  This system worked its way into IA and massive damage and two killed on the IA side.

We got detoured outside of a town between Omaha and Fremont due to massive damage and accidents.  Where I got a phone call from Randy when he got home.  My dog Spud died during the day yesterday!  Randy was upset and of course the kids and I were very upset also, but we also knew the dog was going to end up dying on us.  Spud was the dog with the unknown seizures.  At first Randy thought he somehow choked while he was outside on the chain but when he went up to examine Spud, there was plenty of slack in the chain and the collar would have slipped right off of his neck (we made sure that it could slip off if he was caught up when running or on the chain if something would have happened).  The way Spud was laying and his facial features, you could tell he had a massive siezure.  So trying to find our way on back country roads and county paved hiways we didn't know to get back into Fremont, we had upset kids and nobody was out directing the traffic.  My sister and I again being country girls said fuck it and got on a country road and started heading towards the sun because Northwest was where we wanted to head.  We picked up a truck in front of us from our home area just a different county and he had the same idea.  We got rerouted via the roads with no help from anyone due to big trees, silos, fencing, and other debries in the mushy gravel roads!  A normal 1 hour drive from Omaha to Fremont took 2 hours!

Once we got to a lil town Southeast of Fremont which would have been the quickest route we got denied by a State Trooper directing traffic.  Nobody was allowed into town where a small lake was surrounded wiht houses and such due to the damage!  They weren't letting anyone through not even family members of the town or land owners with no houses.  Ambulances and Fire trucks were all over the town and two of the rural fire trucks were making their way towards the other road leading to Fremont.  We just turned around and followed the fire trucks into Fremont.  Finally!  Fremont NE had no major damage.  Some trees down and some windows broken but no major damage.  Then we pull up into the truck stop where we left my van.  I got a lovely suprise!  My rear windsheild was blown out or a rock got kicked up in the storm!  I have no rear windshield now!  Nothing was stolen.  But everything was glass covered clear up to the front seat and everything was water logged!  Thank GODS I had what ever paperwork I did have in there in sacks and covered up!  My Leadership Manual alone would have cost me 100 some dollars to replace if it got water logged or damaged somehow!

So I called Randy yet again and told him we FINALLY made it into Fremont but I would be still a lot later because we had to clean up the glass and find places for the kdis to sit with out getting cut up!  Thankfull we were able to pull a couple of the pillows from underneith my tent that dind't have glass on it and give those to the kids to sit on.  My sister handed over one of her towels so I could sit on it while driving.  And then we rearrange the back so none of my Thrift shop finds, my tents, sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, or other camping gear would go flying out for my hour drive home!  I ended up pulling over twice on the way home to rearrange my back but FINALLY my normal two hour drive ended up being a 4 hour and 45 minute drive and we made it home at 8:45pm.  where we promptly unloaded the van and shop vaccued it out so I could get some plastic on the windshield due to more storms coming this weekend.

After we got that done, we gave Spud my Fat Man Dog a burial worthy of a King.  See we couldn't bury him.  The ground is too wet and his smell would draw the local wild dog pack and the local coyote pack.  Not to mention all the other wild critters int he area.  So we took my lovely burn pile Randy made up for me this weekend and gave Spud a Funeral Pry.  We didn't want any other anmals digging him up and eating on him.  Randy loaded him on the bonfire and I threw some sage, cedar chips, and sweet grass all over Spud and we said a lil blessing for him and said our goodbyes.

Now today, I get to call his old family and inform them that he is gone.  I am doing laundry from the back of my van and going to take the kids down to my girl's house because they are still stressed from last night.  A lil fun down at Aunties house and coming home about the time Daddy gets home from work will do them good. 

Now I am off to throw another sleeping bag into the wash!  Pictures to come after this post!

It has been dry. No, that is an understatement. The land here has been gasping dust for months, the slightest sparkle will set the grass ablaze. Do not breathe heavy, think hard, twitch an eye.

I took the day off to luxuriate in the silence, no one home this week - NO ONE - and the silence of the birds was all mine own.

After returning from town, setting my stuff down on the bed in the bus, I looked up at the marvels of lightning... The delicious ice blue streaks of fury were raining down on the mountains in lieu of water... and then.. and then a puff of smoke, ever so small but troubling... In the flash second of my pondering, it turned from puff to plume so I ventured to call the policia to describe where in the mountains I saw this still unassuming plume blooming. After my call, worried that I hadn't described it accurately, the wind kicked up to atrocious blasts, blowing the smoke down the mountain and onto the highway and making its location more than obvious.

It was about 10 miles away, but worrisome nonetheless. A highway between me and It, but also huge gusts of wind and lightning. The firefighters took the airplanes and helicopters to the sky despite the fearsome electricity, and battled it with water and chemicals, as it billowed into a mass of smoke miles wide and showed complaint at the attempt to bat it down. The smoke cleared for a still moment and then flame was made visible at the top of the mountain, not a happy site since that made the grass eating monster headed in my general direction. And I don't know how to drive a school bus, and he was out of town.

Somewhere an hour or so after the blaze began, the sky showed mercy and the rain laid down a blanket of wet to put it all to sleep. It was an interesting way to spend a few of my off hours, afraid to take my eyes off of the mountain lest it should burst into a mouth of flames and block off my only exit.

So, grateful am I - to the rains, to the firefighters and forestry workers who risked their lives against lightning and flame, and to the absence this time of death or damage to persons or property.

And that, my dears, is what I did on my impromptu vacation.