Mercy C.R. hospital evacuation

So I had to work 12 hours last night.  About 2300 my phone rings in the ER and it's the Health Alert Network informing that a large hospital in Cedar Rapids is evacuating and to be ready for a radio request for bed availability.  I inform my ER doc and Nursing Supervisor and she tells me how many beds we have.  Sure enough about an hour later the radio in dispatch starts calling all these other hospitals in an extremely wide radius.  I inform Iowa Department of Public Health we can take 8 patients.  Other hospitals answered with anywhere from 2-12 available beds.  So about 2 hours after that they start calling all of us hospitals again on the IDPH radio and ask each one if they can take so many patients.  It was utterly fascinating to hear each hospital respond.  "This is Mary Greely, we can take 4 skilled, 2 pulmonary.  This is Mercy Des Moines, we can take 2 psych and 6 Med/Surg.  This is Marshalltown, affirmed we can take 5 skilled and 3 neuro."  When a hospital was unable to take the number asked another hospital would jump on and say they could absorb those.  It really was amazing to see the effort put in not only by IDPH, but also all the surrounding hospitals, some which were well over 100 miles away from the evacuating hospital.  So 176 patients needed to be evacuated and in only 2 hours they had placement for 119 of them.  I assume the other 57 patients were too critical and OB/newborn patients that were transferred closer the the hospital.  My hat goes off to the Iowa Department of Public Health, Mercy Hospital in Cedar Rapids, and all hospitals, including my own that were so willing to help in what is certain to be an event that will go down in history books.  We received the first patient right before I was leaving work and I must tell you the ambulance crew and nurse from the evacuated hospital looked physicallly and mentally broken.  I cannot imagine the task they were given and the speed in which they accomplished it.  It's times like these where I am proud to say that I'm a midwesterner and part of the Iowa health care system.