Amid hurricane season here in Florida, we did not expect to see another hurricane to hit two years in a row.
Around the same time last year, Hurricane Matthew headed towards Jacksonville. Now this year, the most intense storm to hit the US since Hurricane Katrina: Hurricane Irma.
There was alot of uncertainty about where the storm would hit, and Governor Rick Scott did not waste any time in making sure Florida was prepared for the worst. Guardian Pharmacy of Jacksonville began our preparedness communication as soon as a State of Emergency was issued by the Governor.
We sent faxes to each of our customers to order refills in advance, and had great communication over the phones to ensure each of our communities received the medications they needed to prepare for evacuations.
Making light of a scary situation: Guardian Pharmacy of Jacksonville staff filling prescriptions (with smiles) for residents that were evacuating!
We continued filling prescriptions and making deliveries until Saturday, September 9th at 2:00 PM, to make sure our staff had time to prepare their families for the hurricane. We are so thankful for our sister pharmacies in Florida, who helped take care of our customers who evacuated to areas they could service.
One of our communities, Atria at San Pablo, evacuated to Orlando and was serviced by Guardian Pharmacy of Orlando with ease. We had other communities that evacuated to Tampa, Atlanta and Daytona, and worrying about the pharmacy and being able to receive medications was not a concern to them.
We are happy to report that the Jacksonville pharmacy was back up and running Tuesday, September 12th at 7:00 AM.
How prepared were you this year? Do you have a disaster plan in place with your pharmacy? If yes, how successful was it? If you have questions about our disaster plan, please contact Georgina Leininger at Georgina.Leininger@guardianpharmacy.net.