electric mist

Katrina / Slidell, Covington, Triage

Slidell area people -- if you haven't been reading the comments on the two or three Slidell entries below, various people have been reporting news as they've found it. (For example, the Slidell Memorial Hospital did not collapse as was reported in comments earlier, but is still standing.) Also, there are still requests for information on missing people. In at least one case, someone in the comments is trying to reach someone else who left comments about information requested -- so check, please, if you left a request.

Slidell / Covington shelter -- I was not able to get back to the Covington shelter as I had hoped. The first two days after posting that plan, I was completely thwarted by the fact that there was absolutely no gas to be found in my area. It was eerie how every single gas station was empty. Finally found some yesterday, but had a lot of other things I had to do. However, my son went and discovered two good pieces of news: the Red Cross finally showed up and there is at least a nurse there, and sometime yesterday the shelter got its electricity back, so they at least have the ability not to sit in 95+ degree heat. We did not get their names (no time to do so), and there are at least 30 to 40 people there from the Slidelll area. This shelter is the William Pitcher (spelling?) High School in Covington, if you're trying to track someone down there.

LSU Triage -- to my shock, LSU made an abrupt decision yesterday to close down the triage at the P-MAC. The ER / Trauma doctor who was staying with us was very concerned about this because they were still getting in busloads of patients, in spite of the fact that the FEMA people stamped this "Mission Complete." According to our wonderful volunteer doctor (who is so highly qualified, Louisiana was extremely lucky he showed up, paid his way here, wouldn't accept donations or anything for his help) -- anyway, according to the Doc, this is the worst time to shut down a triage after this sort of disaster. Especially with the news coming out of New Orleans about how dangerously bad the toxic levels of the water are. (Mere exposure to the water -- not just drinking it -- will cause a host of severe illnesses.) The Doc said that within the next few days, we were going to get many people getting sick from having been exposed (and it takes a few days for some of these things to incubate), plus many volunteers / rescuers were starting to come in will illnesses. In addition, many many of the elderly and nursing home people will have had enough time to become septic or have the more serious complications develop from being deprived of their medicines or in such severe conditions. In fact, after the LSU / FEMA people made this decision to "go dark," and declare this "mission: complete," there were two busloads of patients who arrived. On one bus, was a little boy, whose mother only knew that he was going to be at the P-Mac. The doctors were extremely frustrated that their hands were tied and they had to send the busses on to Lafayette (a full hour away from Baton Rouge). Our Doc assured the driver that the child wouldn't be lost -- he'd be in the system. It might take the mom a couple more days to find him, but she'd be able to find him. But still. There's no way to get back in touch with the mom from this end, and the thought that yet another family is separated, that another mom is going to have the extra and unnecessary stress of having to find her child in addition to the fact that the child was sick (hence sending him to the P-Mac... it's just ludicrous. I don't know what the hell the FEMA / LSU people are thinking.

(Well, I suspect what they're thinking is that they want to get things back to normal, which sadly, just can't be done in time for the home football schedule, so they're forcing the issue.)

I asked the Doc what would happen to all of the emergency patients who now aren't going to have a triage to go to, especially since there's a fairly large volume of people, still, and he said they'd be dumped on the local hospitals, who are already over-extended. It's a wrong-headed, crazy decision, and one that the local press isn't likely going to comment on. (Most people don't want to dis the home team, especially since they did put themselves out and spend so much money and effort establishing the triage in the first place.) I'm proud that they set it up, and proud that they did so much good, but this is a bad decision. Even I -- so not a medical person -- can see there's going to be a big need for a little while longer. Why not just move it to one of the other facilities they just set up? I dunno, but it's distressing.

Posted by toni at September 8, 2005 07:56 AM