LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Eighty-three hours after a tornado demolished Duncan Prescription Center in Mayfield, Kentucky, the pharmacy was back up and running.
“From the ashes, we have risen!” the company wrote on Facebook.
In the aftermath of a major natural disaster, medications can be difficult to come by, especially when the pharmacies that distribute them are destroyed.
On Monday, Gov. Andy Beshear reported that Walgreen’s was the only pharmacy open in Mayfield. By Wednesday, the picture had improved. Along with Duncan Prescription Center, Gibson's Pharmacy, which saw one location leveled, was serving customers at a second location in Mayfield. All told, there were seven pharmacies open in Mayfield Wednesday, according to RX Open, which tracks the operating status of pharmacies during disasters. The site reported that at least three pharmacies were open in Princeton, and one in Dawson Springs.
“Obviously, we need everybody to be patient with us,” Brittany Brown of Gibson’s Pharmacy said in a Facebook video on Tuesday. Three days after the downtown Mayfield location of the business was turned into a pile of rubble, Gibson’s was inviting customers to another location that avoided significant damage.
“We pride ourselves on being fast and getting scripts out as quickly as possible,” Brown said, inviting customers to send refill information via Facebook messenger since phones were down. “We are going to do that as best we can, but we are combining both stores in one location and that is going to take a lot of time.”
She asked that only those in the most dire need attempt to get prescriptions. “If you’re not out of medicine, and you still have a week's worth, please wait,” she said. “Let us take the people that are out of medication.”
Serving long-term medical needs after a natural disaster comes with a long list of challenges, from pharmacies that are leveled to patients who have lost or don’t know their medication information.
Beshear alluded to the issue this week when announcing the opening of Walmart’s pharmacy in Mayfield. “If you need a refill, it would help if you could bring your medication bottles,” he told Kentuckians, “but the pharmacy recognizes that you probably don’t have them.”
In 2014, researchers from Japan and the UK published a paper on the disaster-driven medication loss. It said, “During any disaster, medication maintenance is problematic due to people not having adequate dosages for a sufficient period of time, not having prescriptions with them, not remembering the medication they are on and more likely not having any medication with them at all.”
The paper cited surveys conducted after natural disasters that showed medication refills were one of the most pressing needs for survivors. Following flooding in Iowa in 2008 that displaced nearly 20,000 people, “18.3% of urban households and 16.2% of rural households reported that at least one individual lacked access to a three-day supply of prescription medications,” the paper said.
It’s not clear how many Kentuckians are in need of medications, but the state and local hospitals are attempting to make it easier for them to get what they need.
On Tuesday, two Western Kentucky hospitals partnered with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to open a mobile clinic in the parking lot of a Mayfield Lowe’s.
“It’s stocked with first aid supplies and over-the-counter medication,” Beshear said. “It’s open. It’s accepting walk-ins all day long. They want to help you.”