Miki Fairley

Tina Eichner, managing editor, joins The O&P EDGE this month from the wireless industry. She previously was managing editor of RCR Wireless News, a weekly trade publication of Crain Communications Inc.

"After ten years in the wireless industry, I craved a professional change," says Tina. "I am excited to dive into the O&P field and help The O&P EDGE continue to provide its readers with the vital clinical and industry information they need to run their companies and practices."

Tina has been a writer and editor for more than 16 years. She lives in Broomfield, Colorado, with her husband and six- and eight-year-old daughters and enjoys cooking, taking long walks, and writing. Tina also is an active volunteer at a preschool for children with disabilities and is happy to extend that work experience into her job here at The O&P EDGE. Meredy Fullen, previous managing editor, is focusing her talents on advertising sales, marketing, and new business development.

Welcome aboard, Tina!

O&P Heroes in Hurricane Disaster

Tina Eichner

Who can forget the horrific sights of devastated homes, a surging river of displaced people seeking shelter, rescuers trying to reach people trapped in attics and on rooftops, and gridlocked traffic as people tried to flee yet another oncoming hurricane?

Until this record Atlantic hurricane season, the largest number of named storms ever recorded was 21, in 1933. However, this year, Wilma was the last name on the National Hurricane Center's list (Q, U, X, Y, and Z aren't used, since very few names begin with those letters). The record-breaking 23 named storms, as of press time, now have driven naming into the Greek alphabet, with Tropical Storm Alpha and Hurricane Beta wreaking destruction in the Caribbean and Central America.

Hurricane historian Eric Gross of Harding University, Searcy, Arkansas, notes that 2005 was "the worst hurricane season ever in terms of the physical area of the nation damaged by storms." Damage from Katrina alone encompassed an area about the size of Great Britain, and marked the first time in almost a century that a major American city has been either physically or functionally destroyed by a national disaster (the last being San Francisco, California, in the great earthquake of 1906), Gross noted in comments on a science, physics, and space news website: www.physorg.com

In human terms, the loss cannot be expressed. However, the O&P community has gathered together to help one another, as well as the O&P patients. You can read more about these efforts in the feature article, "O&P Community Rallies Support for Katrina Victims."

Hurricane Katrina did not just affect people. Thousands of pets and livestock were left to fend for themselves. One of the heroes was noted O&P professional Ronnie Graves, CO, BOCPO, LPO, RPT, who helped rescue hundreds of animals in Mississippi. You can read his inspiring story in "Prosthetist/Orthotist Rescues Animals from Katrina Disaster."