Tornado Rebuilding Progress
In the late afternoon of April 27, 2011, an EF-5 tornado roared up Highway 25 through Smithville, leaving in its wake a swath of destruction a half-mile wide and five miles long. Within seconds the town was leveled. Most of the homes, the town hall, police station, post office, bank, grocery store, four churches, school and all but one business were gone. Sixteen lives were lost.
At 3:45 p.m. when the tornado hit, there were approximately 30 staff, patients, and visitors in Access clinics. Tornado sirens sounded earlier in the day and again in the afternoon. Some employees watched the weather on their computers and others watched the sky. It was a phone call reporting a tornado on the ground that sent everyone seeking immediate shelter.
The horror of living through the tornado did not compare to the panic of stepping outside to find everything familiar gone. There was no cell phone service so administrative staff ran about a quarter mile from the office to the clinic while climbing over downed trees and utility lines to see if the clinic and its employees survived. They were alive, but the clinic and everything around it was destroyed.
Staff grabbed emergency kits, IV fluids, bandages and other supplies and began searching and responding to those with needs. Many of those who survived were trapped inside their homes or had been injured by falling or flying debris. Stretchers were in short supply, so doors were removed from the clinic to transport the injured. Helicopters could not fly and ambulances could not reach areas most affected so the patients were transported in the beds of pickup trucks to ambulances or in some cases to the hospital nine miles away. The clinic, which was at the epicenter of activity, served as trauma room and morgue as fire and rescue units and other healthcare providers from Gilmore Memorial Regional Medical Center arrived.
The damage on the outside of the medical clinic did not appear severe, but the inside told a different story. Much of the roof was gone. Doors were blown off the hinges, windows were blown out, the ceiling was lifted, and the exterior brick walls were bowed. As soon as the clinic was clear of patients, the work of removing and storing furniture, equipment and records began. The roof was also blown off the dental clinic and the ceiling tiles were mostly in the floor. Fortunately, the equipment and records were saved with only minimal damage.
The command center during the days and weeks following the disaster became the Access Administrative Office which suffered only minimal damage. Access’ recover plan began with mitigation of further damage, and proceeded to deployment of staff to three satellite clinics. On May 10 the dental clinic re-opened and medical services were re-established at the Smithville Clinic site in a mobile unit loaned by Coastal Family Health Services.
Immediately after the disaster, AmeriCares, awarded Access a $30,000 grant that was applied toward the lease of a modular medical facility. The damaged clinic was demolished and the modular unit placed on the concrete slab where the clinic stood. The 3,800 square foot clinic opened on June 15, 2011. The facility provides space for two waiting rooms with check-in for two providers, six exam rooms, a trauma room, three clinical offices, two business offices, lab, med room and break room.
Plans are currently being developed for a new medical clinic. The new clinic will provide approximately 10,000 square feet of clinical space for two physicians and a nurse practitioner. The expanded project will also provide in-house x-ray and pharmacy services. It will include a safe room large enough to accommodate patients and staff. Construction is expected to start in the spring of 2012 and will take approximately a year to complete.