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On Wednesday, February 2, 2011, an ice storm left hundreds of thousands in the dark across Ohio and gave way to melting slush before plunging temperatures renewed the icy threat to power lines. Utilities reported outages affecting some 220,000 Ohio customers. Public schools in Canton, Columbus, Cleveland, Toledo, Dayton and Akron canceled Wednesday’s classes because of power problems or hazardous weather conditions. The highest outages were reported in the Canton area, where customers remained without power for an extended period of time.Â
Canton Mayor, William J. Healy II, declared a state of emergency before dawn on Wednesday with much of the city of 78,000 without power at one point. Two Canton firehouses were using backup electric generators and the city service center lost power and phone service. The American Red Cross emergency shelter at the Canton Memorial Civic Center opened on Thursday, February 3, 2011 to address the growing needs of their citizens. A total of 262 people took advantage of the shelter.
Utilizing high-pressure H cylinders, the Stark County Emergency Agency, the Canton Fire Department and the Stark County American Red Cross provided oxygen to the patients throughout the shelter. But as the power outage lengthened, the need for oxygen grew. In cooperation with Region 13 Task Force from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Penn Care provided the Mass Oxygen Distribution System (MODS) to assist; a revolutionary way of providing organizations and communities with oxygen in the event of a disaster.
A Mass Oxygen Distribution System (MODS) is a portable patient medical oxygen system that can provide over 64,000 gaseous liters of oxygen (stored as only 75 liters of LOX) to multiple patients. The oxygen capacity of just one MODS emergency oxygen system is equivalent to 12 large high-pressure H cylinders. LOX costs less than gaseous oxygen and uses ALL of the oxygen volume, whereas gaseous oxygen cylinders only utilize 80% of their volume and are heavy and difficult to transport. In short, a MODS portable emergency oxygen system is the most cost-effective and space-conscious way to deliver oxygen to multiple patients in the event of a crisis or hospital evacuation.
In the three days that the Mass Oxygen Distribution System (MODS) was active at the shelter, the number of oxygenated patients varied from five to eighteen patients. Even with continuous oxygen being delivered, consumption was only over 3,200 liters. Penn Care was proud to be a part of the emergency aid for Canton’s affected residents. We have our fingers crossed for an early Spring!
