When It Rains, It Pours!

The Aix weather app forecast that there would be rain today and there was! It actually started before I woke up. It continued for a short while, though not as heavy as before sunrise. It had stopped by the time I left the house, but the wet roads caused traffic to be slow as soon as I got on the freeway. 

Looking out my bedroom window at the rain at 6:38 am.

Rain in the cat run at 6:40 am.

This is the only photo that really shows it coming down.

Clouds coming over nā Koolau at 8:09 am.

Traffic jam at 8:12 am.

There were patchy clouds when I got to LCC, there had already been a light drizzle so operations were changed so the line of people coming in for vaccinations was redirected to keep them sheltered while they waited for their turn. The volunteer registration area was also changed to give us more shelter getting to our stations. But for a lot of the time I stood in the drizzle to cool off from all the walking back & forth to collect forms. 

Arriving at LCC at 8:38 am,

The battleships have disappeared in the drizzle; 3:55 pm.

My path from the vaccinators to the data entry center; 3:57 pm.

Things were going really well, we were doing about 150 to 175 forms per hour, then shortly after 11 the power went out! There were 3 generators brought in; 2 for Data Entry and 1 to provide power for the portable freezer units for the vaccine. Initially they were able to provide power to all 18 computers we were using; unfortunately the 6 in the back room were unable to connect to the Internet, which we needed to enter data into VAMS. It turned out that 2 of the computers in the front room were also unable to connect to the Internet, so we ended up with only 10 people doing data entry; Alicia sent 8 MRC volunteers home because there was nothing they could do without the additional computers.

The generator providing power to the 10 wi-fi connected computers

We discovered when the power is out the bathrooms do not flush since they are operated by a motion-sensor. Same with the water faucets in the bathrooms. Fortunately, there was one old-fashioned flush style bathroom nearby. I wonder if they planned that?

The directional arrow towards the bathrooms is on the cone.

Alicia had the volunteers eat lunch before they left; we were still hoping the power would come on by the time lunch was done. It wasn't and the line of patients was now wrapped around the building. Usually the stations staffed by the  student nurses is shut down about 2:30, not today! The student nurses stayed open until about 3 pm; the last veteran nurses stations closed about 3:30 pm. The power came back on about 3:30 pm, about half an hour after the last appointment time. We finished data entry at about 4:30 pm and locked up the room about 5 pm. There were 1226 forms entered today and 2 rejections; there were 1246 appointments registered for today. I think the number was higher because this closed POD is now taking employees from the Board of Water Supply and Hawaiian Telephone; there may be a couple more organizations that are also allowed at this closed POD but those were the only ones in recognizable uniforms that I saw today. 

When the power first went out, we thought all the data entry people could go to lunch while we waited. But shortly after the power went out, Alicia got a message over the radio; lunch was delayed because the delivery person had an accident! Auē! Lunch today was from Yama's Fish Market; it was Shoyu Eggplant with Tofu again.

The photo is a little dark since this was taken in the data entry center.

I got a call from Kai this morning; he wanted to know what his zip code was. I told him, I also told him he could have asked Google. He was filling out forms to get his 2nd dose of the Moderna vaccine. He had IMed me earlier but because I was at the vaccine POD I did not see it until I checked my phone at lunch. Later in the evening he started having muscle aches, headache, & a little nausea. He has chills but no fever; his temperature is normal.

Even with the light drizzle I walked 4.1 miles today running forms from the vaccinators back to the data entry center. I am thinking may be I should turn the app on when I leave the car since that is part of my walking for the day.

I got a bunch of emails from Marjorie today about doing Data Entry at the LCC PODs next week. She also sent an email about the future of MRC at the PODs; apparently MRC will be phased out by March 16 since they have new funds & are transitioning to 100% paid staff. I think I will apply to help at the LCC PODs in data entry.

There were 54 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total up to 27,753 known cases. There were 2 new deaths reported, increasing the fatalities to 443; currently 639 cases are considered to be active. The 7-day average of new cases on Oʻahu is 24 with a positivity rate of 0.9%.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Mr.  Omiya & Alina!