I hear this question with every storm...what happens to the turtles if no one can make it to the sea turtle hospital?

Sea turtle hospital - so quiet today you could hear a mouse...if a mouse could survive all the snow we've had this year.


Excellent question! Fact is, we are prepared for every kind of weather. During larger scale storms, especially if a state of emergency is declared, we station at least one staff at a nearby hotel so at least one person is guaranteed to be here to administer medications and perform treatments. Last night was my turn to ride out the storm in a hotel.

I rode out the storm last night in the nice cozy room below. I left the drapes open so I could see the snow falling around the street light outside!


As a member of several emergency response teams I'm trained to be prepared for bad weather. In the photo below you can see the emergency provisions I brought with me to the hotel. My iPad (so I could check weather in the event of power failure), a bottle of water, a snack, a flashlight and a good book. I could live for days without any of these except the good book!


In the photos below you can see what the area looked like when I pulled in to our parking lot this morning. The mound of snow on the left is almost up to the telephone wires. In the photo on the right the snow mounds are almost as tall as the trains on the track.


Guess who gets to shovel these out...enough said on this photo.


This wouldn't be a rescue team blog without photos of animals now would it. This is one of the turtles I treated today. In the photo on the left you can see exposed bone on the top shell (carapace). I cleaned the exposed area and applied a topical treatment, which just happens to be the same color as the 10 feet of snow outside.


Adam also made it in today, which is great because we still have a lot of animals here that need TLC. Hopefully we will be heading home before the rain turns to ice. Travel safe out there, friends.

-Connie