BAY AREA QUAKE : State’s Emergency Agencies Work With Quiet Efficiency, Cooperation

It began with a rash of “heart attack calls” to the Oakland Police Department. Then people began arriving on foot at hospital emergency rooms throughout the Bay Area. Then came calls from cities and towns to state emergency services officials for fire engines and helicopters.

The National Guard mobilized its emergency operations within 20 minutes of the first earthquake rumblings. Twenty-seven-thousand National Guardsmen were placed on alert. Hundreds of off-duty doctors and nurses poured into Bay Area emergency rooms.

By 10 p.m., emergency service officials from Oakland to Sacramento were saying tentatively that their medical and emergency services response was proceeding smoothly and as planned. If anything, they said, the volume of calls for help seemed ominously low.

Into the night, they waited anxiously for the anticipated onslaught.

“We were lucky,” ventured Dr. Michael Callaham, director of the emergency department at UC San Francisco’s Moffitt-Long Hospital, in a telephone interview. “But I think what’s happening is there are people pinned in rubble who won’t be extricated for hours. Or, they may be dead.”

The full effects of the collapse of the Nimitz Freeway were just beginning to be felt in Oakland-area hospitals.

Many hospitals lost power. One had no water. Structural damage forced several small facilities to evacuate. But on the whole, officials reported that their emergency rooms were functioning well and that so far, serious injuries had been surprisingly few.

Ambulances in San Francisco made what Mayor Art Agnos described as an almost record number of runs, despite jammed traffic, rubble and impassable streets. Some ambulances could not reach the city’s designated trauma centers so they headed simply for the closest hospital.

On a statewide level, the Office of Emergency Services had received calls for help from just three municipalities: The cities of Oakland and San Jose called in early for 25 additional fire engines; the town of Felton in the Santa Cruz Mountains requested 40.

Dozens of officials gathered at the state Office of Emergency Services headquarters in Sacramento, including representatives of the Red Cross, state police and Emergency Medical Services Authority. There they waited to dispatch help upon request.

“We have not been overwhelmed with reports (of casualties),” said William Metegavich, director of emergency services for the state. He described the radio circuits as “very active”--a good sign that the dearth of calls was not the result of system breakdown.

In Oakland, officials at Merritt-Peralta Medical Center, one of the city’s largest hospitals, were forced to evacuate an outpatient facility that was damaged in the quake. But hospital officials said the emergency room remained surprisingly quiet well into the night.

About 35 people were admitted to the emergency room during the first three hours, according to Gerrie Shields, a Merritt-Peralta spokeswoman. Most of the injuries consisted of broken bones and bruises. Ten were admitted and two underwent surgery.

At nearby Providence Hospital, however, ambulances had to be diverted after the emergency room became overloaded, Shields said. Shortly before 10 p.m., Shields said, “We are just now trying to figure out if we can anticipate having more come in.”

Across the bay at UC San Francisco’s Moffitt-Long Hospital, Callaham said there had been “a small number of very seriously injured people.” Callaham said 150 doctors and as many nurses had poured in to help out with what had begun to look like “really low volume.”

Power had gone out, leaving the hospital dependent upon its emergency generator. Some elevators were immobilized. Callaham suggested the real test of the hospital’s preparedness would come later when the more seriously injured were dug out and brought in.

At San Francisco General Hospital, about two dozen injured people had been brought in to the emergency room by late Tuesday night. Most had bruises, cuts and broken bones. Hospital workers said only three cases appeared to be serious, including one person with a head injury from falling off a ladder.

Elsewhere, two hospitals in San Jose were reported to be without power. A San Mateo hospital reported serious damage. Kaiser Permanente evacuated two floors of a facility in Santa Clara after gas began leaking as a result of the quake.

In Sacramento, the Office of Emergency Services stood by to dispatch fleets of fire trucks used usually by the state forestry department. Caltrans officials said they had gotten maintenance crews on the scene “almost immediately” to begin examining bridges and overpasses.

Lt. Col. Ronald Bright of the state’s military department said his agency’s emergency response was running smoothly: 400 National Guardsmen, mostly in helicopter units, were assembling at military bases around the state to be ready to fly in if needed.

Among the military facilities put on alert were a helicopter air ambulance unit at Mather and a large cargo helicopter unit at Stockton. Bright said the 143rd Combat Support Field Hospital Unit based at Los Alamitos Reserve Center in Orange County was also put on notice in case a field hospital was needed.

“So far, it’s been chaotic but smooth,” said Sgt. Ray Miller of the Oakland Police Department, expressing an opinion shared by others. Asked to elaborate, Miller said: “We’re really busy. But it’s being handled.”