Today at the Valley we had an internal disaster...which sounds awfully dramatic and, in this case, was. The power had gone out sometime in the morning and the back up generators had kicked in. But they weren't able to get the power back on and since the back up generators could go out and leave us with nothing (well, dim emergency lighting but nothing else) we couldn't operate as a real hospital. That meant no surgery and that meant closed for all ambulances and a sign on the ER door explaining: We are experiencing a major internal disaster.....yada-yada-yada....consider going elsewhere. The actual experience wasn't too bad--low patient volumes and a relaxed pace. Unfortunately the lab must have been thrown into total chaos because they reached new heights of impenetrable disorganization. Blood being lost two or three times (per patient!) and multi-hour long delays. Very anxiety provoking. Still, got out on time. U-561