N.C. Men preparing response. North Carolina Baptist Men is preparing to respond to a possible landfall by Hurricane Irene on the state’s coast. “We are planning for a response, mobilizing and preparing our equipment and volunteers to be available in case Irene causes trouble for North Carolina,” Gaylon Moss, the organization’s disaster relief coordinator, told the NBC television affiliate in Raleigh, N.C. Because Irene is moving relatively slowly toward the coast, Moss said he had plenty of time to figure out how to move resources and assets. He added equipment and volunteers likely wouldn’t move into action until Sunday afternoon, Aug. 28, because they need to wait until the storm has passed over before determining where the need will be. This year North Carolina Baptist Men has responded to 17 different incidents in the state. “We usually average one response every four or five weeks but we’re way ahead of that,” Moss said.
Medical Center ranked top in Triad. Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., has been named the top hospital in the Triad by U.S. News and World Report in its annual hospital rankings, according to the Winston-Salem Business Journal. The medical center had four nationally ranked specialities — cancer, gynecology, nephrology and urology — and nine high performing specialties. Duke University Medical Center ranked highest among North Carolina hospitals and ninth in the nation. Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore took the top ranking.