They've already figured out why there's no toilet paper.
My brother works at WB Mason in Boston and scored us that.commercial toilet paper. It's expensive as fuck but I don't think I'll live long enough to use it.all
Most commercial toilet paper is about as comfortable as wiping your ass with newsprint.
Bandwagon
One phenomenon he described was people who were fully alert and able to ambulate, but would have a respiratory rate of 40-50 and a blood oxygen saturation of no more than %70. They would complain of weakness and then 'drop dead' right there. I know for a fact that this EMT is exaggerating, but at the same time, he is one of our better ones. I also know for a fact that there must be at least some kernel of truth to what he is telling me. 
Well other than the walking hypoxic, that doesn't sound too bad. Cities confirmed garbage.Hello adult children,
We deployed 20-30 EMTs and Paramedics to New York 2 weeks ago. The first of them came back to our base in St. Louis to demobilize and go home today. I was the Supervisor on duty so I got a chance to hear their raw verbal (non-official) reports of what it was like.
The general report is grim.
One story was from a set of two EMTs who worked as partners in New York for the last 2 weeks. They reported that New York City is an absolute shit hole and they can not believe how good they ever had it in St. Louis. This was not surprising to me personally and probably had nothing to do with COVID. I also served in New York City during 'Super Storm Sandy' and found NY to be an approximation of hell.
This same crew also reported (again none of this is official, only anecdotal) that the general leadership within FEMA is nothing but bullies and whipcrackers. The one EMT told me that he had worked 13 days in a row, 12 hours a day, running constant 911 calls back-to-back-to-back and he started to feel weak so he told his local FEMA supervisor and they set him up with a Nurse who told him that he was dehydrated. The nurse gave him an IV and gave him a 2 liter bolus of saline and told him to eat a good fat meal or two take a 48 hour break.
When he reported this to his FEMA supervisor, that supervisor told him that he thought that our guys were 'milking the clock' and would in fact be re-deployed for a full 12 hour shift the following day. Our guy told him that he would settle for 24 hour break instead of the 48 recommended by the Nurse and this offer was rejected. Our guy then said that if he cannot get at least 1 day off, then he would prefer to just be sent home. FEMA obliged and sent him home yesterday and he arrived at our base just today after his flight.
In general, this crew had nothing positive to report at all. They said New York City is still running it's rental bikes and scooters, still has its buses and subways at full capacity, and that the general concept of 'social distance' is not a real thing. They hated the way FEMA is handling this and they hated the entire city of New York. They said they couldn't wait to get back home.
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Another crew member came home a bit later in the day. His story (so he says) is that the City was getting 7000 911 calls a day and that they were consistently backed up by at least 1000 calls at any given time (average over the course of 15 days). I know enough to know that these numbers are probably over-inflated, but I also know enough to know that he probably isn't trying to lie to me.
He said he was running almost back-to-back cardiac arrest calls. And this is as a BLS unit. He said he ran maybe 20 of them in 15 days interspersed with 'regular' calls. His description was that they would show up, apply the AED, pump on the patient's chest for 20 minutes, and then call it. Then they'd go on to the next one.
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Another EMT called me from New York today and told me that his 'Stair Chair' was stolen from his ambulance. He said that FDNY paramedics are not equipped with Stair Chairs and they see them as a 'hot commodity'. He said that it seems that it was stolen from his ambulance while he was parked at an ER. He said that he didn't want to throw stones, but that if he had to guess, a local FDNY Medic probably took it.
This is consistent with my experience with FDNY back in 2011. When I saw and was able to inspect my first FDNY Ambulance in 2011 during 'SuperStorn Sandy' on Rockaway Island... I was blown away by how ancient and old and frankly bad their set-up was. They were at least 5 or 10 years behind what my private company in St. Louis was able to provide in terms of equipment. To hear, today, that they still do not have basic Stair Chairs does not come as a shock.
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I dunno. The folks coming back from New York so far as of today painted a relatively bleak picture. Maybe that will change as more of them come back.
Surely this is the one thing we can all agree on.
If it helps, my business is also in Suffolk. While the wave of applications is massive, nearly zero of the 350b has been disbursed. Its a massive shitstorm on twitter hastag #PPPloans . We worked with our bank account rep constantly to get our apps in the day our bank opened their portal (Monday). My best advice is if they haven't already is reach out directly to their account reps at the bank. Even if they have stopped "accepting apps". Hopefully the account rep will assist them with getting their apps at least put in the queue. Our govt screwed the pooch on this by ignoring all of us who were telling them their wasn't enough loan processing in the entire country to handle the amount of apps they were going to be facing. As usual the govt "knew better" and ignored what we all warned about.
NYC is a shit hole. A liberal run, liberal dominant shit hole. I speak as a former resident. It is run by arrogant douchebags of the highest order.Hello adult children,
We deployed 20-30 EMTs and Paramedics to New York 2 weeks ago. The first of them came back to our base in St. Louis to demobilize and go home today. I was the Supervisor on duty so I got a chance to hear their raw verbal (non-official) reports of what it was like.
The general report is grim.
One story was from a set of two EMTs who worked as partners in New York for the last 2 weeks. They reported that New York City is an absolute shit hole and they can not believe how good they ever had it in St. Louis. This was not surprising to me personally and probably had nothing to do with COVID. I also served in New York City during 'Super Storm Sandy' and found NY to be an approximation of hell.
This same crew also reported (again none of this is official, only anecdotal) that the general leadership within FEMA is nothing but bullies and whipcrackers. The one EMT told me that he had worked 13 days in a row, 12 hours a day, running constant 911 calls back-to-back-to-back and he started to feel weak so he told his local FEMA supervisor and they set him up with a Nurse who told him that he was dehydrated. The nurse gave him an IV and gave him a 2 liter bolus of saline and told him to eat a good fat meal or two take a 48 hour break.
When he reported this to his FEMA supervisor, that supervisor told him that he thought that our guys were 'milking the clock' and would in fact be re-deployed for a full 12 hour shift the following day. Our guy told him that he would settle for 24 hour break instead of the 48 recommended by the Nurse and this offer was rejected. Our guy then said that if he cannot get at least 1 day off, then he would prefer to just be sent home. FEMA obliged and sent him home yesterday and he arrived at our base just today after his flight.
In general, this crew had nothing positive to report at all. They said New York City is still running it's rental bikes and scooters, still has its buses and subways at full capacity, and that the general concept of 'social distance' is not a real thing. They hated the way FEMA is handling this and they hated the entire city of New York. They said they couldn't wait to get back home.
--------
Another crew member came home a bit later in the day. His story (so he says) is that the City was getting 7000 911 calls a day and that they were consistently backed up by at least 1000 calls at any given time (average over the course of 15 days). I know enough to know that these numbers are probably over-inflated, but I also know enough to know that he probably isn't trying to lie to me.
He said he was running almost back-to-back cardiac arrest calls. And this is as a BLS unit. He said he ran maybe 20 of them in 15 days interspersed with 'regular' calls. His description was that they would show up, apply the AED, pump on the patient's chest for 20 minutes, and then call it. Then they'd go on to the next one.
-----
Another EMT called me from New York today and told me that his 'Stair Chair' was stolen from his ambulance. He said that FDNY paramedics are not equipped with Stair Chairs and they see them as a 'hot commodity'. He said that it seems that it was stolen from his ambulance while he was parked at an ER. He said that he didn't want to throw stones, but that if he had to guess, a local FDNY Medic probably took it.
This is consistent with my experience with FDNY back in 2011. When I saw and was able to inspect my first FDNY Ambulance in 2011 during 'SuperStorn Sandy' on Rockaway Island... I was blown away by how ancient and old and frankly bad their set-up was. They were at least 5 or 10 years behind what my private company in St. Louis was able to provide in terms of equipment. To hear, today, that they still do not have basic Stair Chairs does not come as a shock.
-------
I dunno. The folks coming back from New York so far as of today painted a relatively bleak picture. Maybe that will change as more of them come back.
I live here now (Long Island). I have lived in Midtown. The only thing keeping me here are the public schools. On Long Island the public schools are phenomenal. The day my daughter graduates HS, my ass is gone. NYC is probably an amazing place to live if you are a liberal multi-millionaire. Correction, Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn are probably amazing to live in if you are a liberal multi-millionaire. The rest is a giant shit hole. Cool to visit for a week to see the shows, museums, history etc. But to live? No.
