Katrina: Mississippi's Gulf Coast - A Comprehensive Report

This is an extensive, edited report furnished in comments by reader Alee:

The material world in which we lived has been utterly and completely destroyed; only the earth remains.

Many homes and commercial structures which survived catastrophe since the 1840's, including Hurricane Camille, have ceased to exist.

TV coverage appears focused on New Orleans and the casinos in Biloxi but there is more to the Mississippi coast than the casinos in Biloxi. The coast is 90 miles wide and, from east to west, here are the cities that are not being featured on the news: Pascagoula, Ocean Springs, Biloxi, Gulfport, Long Beach, Pass Christian, Diamondhead, Bay St. Louis, Waveland, and Pearlington.

Each city was populated with thousands of residents, many evacuated, many remained. There's been little or no news footage of those areas. Those cities and towns were heavily damaged or totally destroyed. Every structure within 200 yards of the beach is gone and no recognizable landmarks remain.

Public schools are damaged or non-existent. Churches and temples (including First Baptist in Long Beach which survived Camille in 1969) are non-existent or severely damaged. Medical facilities (doctors offices, pharmacies, etc) non-existent or severely damaged. Retail centers are non-existent. Recreation areas non-existent. Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport - severely damaged.

At the east and west ends of Harrison County, both vehicle and railroad bridges on the waterfront Highway 90 across Bay St. Louis (west) and Biloxi Bay (east) are completely destroyed.

Scenic Drive in Pass Christian, a 2 mile stretch along the beach, once lined with ancient oaks and stately late 19th-century and ante-bellum homes and once called "the most beautiful street in America" and on the National Registry of Historic Places, has been reduced to rubble.

There's been no electricity since early Monday, meaning no usual daily activity or commerce is possible. There are no lights, no cooking, and no air conditioning, fresh water, or toilets. The gas stations are destroyed or closed without electricity to power the gas pumps. 

In an area 90 miles wide by approximately 6 miles deep:

1) cell phones are not working - the transmission towers were damaged or blown down. There is no electricity and where some have generators, the generators were destroyed in the tidal wave. With roads not passable, technicians cannot reach the towers to repair the generators - which have no gasoline, anyway. Regular land-line phones are out and service will not be back for 2-3 weeks or more. "Satellite" phones are the only means of communication.

2) Every single road has to be cleared by bull-dozer and electricians will need to repair power lines before they are passable

3) Motor vehicles caught in the storm-surge has been destroyed, inundated under 20+ feet of muddy salt water. Nearly every automobile, police cruiser, ambulance, rescue wagon, fire truck, post office delivery van or commercial vehicle is useless.

4) Municipal government and services no longer exist. Buildings housing all government offices are non-existent or damaged beyond use. In some cities, the police department has vanished from the earth; where officers survived - any infrastructure is gone and their vehicles are inoperable.

5) Tens of thousands of homes are now scattered rubble. In many of those homes, someone died. If the body is visible, it is not recoverable until mountains of debris can be removed. It's sunny and the temperatures are in the 90s. (Ignore "current death toll" on evening news reports! It will be weeks, probably months, before a staggeringly higher death count is officially recognized)

6) In every destroyed home was a refrigerator and in many of them, freezers, filled with the family's choice of meat, poultry, fish, and game. Those appliances now litter the landscape, their contents strewn about, rotting in the sun and heat.

7) Most every grocery store in the storm-surge area had its contents blown out. Mountains of fresh produce, red meat, fresh fish and poultry, eggs, milk, frozen food, etc., lie rotting in the sun. Add this to the above and you see the health hazard in the making.

8) Many mortuaries have been destroyed. Refrigerated trucks are arriving to be used as temporary morgues - and low on diesel fuel to maintain temperature.

9) Mosquito eggs that had lain dormant in dry soil have now been re-vitalized; in the next two or three weeks, the horde will hatch likely fill the area.

10) Nearly every place of employment on the coast is gone and survivors may not have a job to return to anytime, soon. The casinos alone employed 14,000 people, all now jobless. The hospitality industry (hotels and restaurants) employed thousands more, also now jobless.

The 500-boat fishing fleet, if the ships survived, have no crews. Of the ships that may be operable when their crew can return, there are no home port facilities to off-load and process their catch. The port of Gulfport, 2ND largest on the Gulf coast and largest port of entry for commerce from central and south America, has been destroyed.

Retail stores (pharmacies, card shops, groceries, dry cleaning, hardware, fast food, etc., all gone--those that remain cannot open due to lack of power. No-one who was expecting to get a pay check this week for work done last week will get a check and "plastic" is as useless as cell phones. Credit/debit cards drawn against local banks cannot be used in in commerce because the banks are destroyed. ATM are  non-functioning as most were inundated and now filled with muddy salt water.

What can you do to help?
CASH to the SALVATION ARMY and RED CROSS. If you are able, donate blood.

And if you or anyone you know really wants to help, fill your vehicle with a two-week supply of food, water, gasoline, and clean clothes (you have to be completely self-contained--we have no means of supporting you), and come on down! We need electricians, tree-trimmers, plumbers, carpenters, and general laborers.

This post is also available at Blogger News Network.

Comments

[Isanah]

Yes, Miss. has been overshadowed by N.O. media coverage. They are certainly suffering and have had enormous loss of lives, homes, and livelihoods. Do horrific to comprehend fully what Katrina has done to the gulf coast communities.

[Isanah]

Too horrific...darn!

[!]

All of these things pointed out are simply taken for granted everyday by the rest of us.
Please help the vicims any way you can no matter how small. It all helps and means so much !!

[FloridaPatty]

Dan I appreciate so much the intelligent discourse. I find it mind numbing that some people can spew their hate for the President and spin even this on him. Atleast here, there is a reasonable amount of sensible exchange of thoughts.

Great blog. Thanks.

[RICK]

They blame Bush for the hurricane, like he ordered it and deemed that it hit NO as fast and as furious as possible. With all the red tape to go through in government, one wonders why we have government at all. Too many agencies. Too much government. Elect Hillary Clinton. You ain't seen nothin' yet. No leaders anymore, all puppets! The media makes it seem that the country is divided when it's not. Most major issues are supported or not supported by 80% of the people. Where's the representation? Lining their pockets and planning their re-election. C'mon people, listen to Newt Gingrich for a change. Guiliani, Iaccoca, where are they? Jack Welch? We need a leader without the strings. Remember Ross Perrot and his stance on illegal immigration and exporting jobs? They laughed at him, but he was right.

[cathy]

while we were sleeping, Al Queda took over a town in Iraq...accoring to Matt drudge...i knew it, as soon as the world realized that we were otherwise occupied they pounced.

[farmgirl]

Very well said.

I have just about had it with spokesmen or persons from a particular charity ..as weary of her face and innane remarks as had become of BHT on another thread.

She is fund raising..and is so full of platitudes and yes, we are there ministering to teh victims..says come on and sign up to volunteer ..we can train you in just a couple of hours..blah blah blah...

Train someone to BE there and take histories, and identification and link up these families ..evidently they haven't trained their own people to do that yet.

Well I can tell you that from what I seeing they NOT there and the ministering is being done by everyday people who are disorganized but trying.

You know what we need?

A trail wagon boss..a guy who takes off from Texas across the country setting up way stations for the people with their two weeks supply for self maintainance to be sure to find gas and a clear path to you guys on the gulf..Its not going to do any good if they take out from here (many are doing it anyway) and get bogged down on the way to help.

A trail boss to flag the path..people along the way to direct to the aid stations..some organization of some kind.

[farmgirl]

My PLAN:
Develop an intake record...as evacuees are taken from one location to another have a record of their original statistics, their medical records if possible, health history at the lesat, meds taken, job skills, family and friend list:

KEEP a copy for data entry for a base record of them and their whereabouts.

Plasic wrap them a copy to keep with them as they progress thru the so called system.

Set up temporary housing in various locations across the country preparing for their arrival.

Set up central points for volunteers with skills to report to to help with the volume of needs along the Gulf.

Corporations are great at this..they have one year, five year , ten year plans for their companies..Some of them step up with a guide / plan for us to follow.

The military and Guards are for the BIG stuff ..pushing things away with track hoes and such.

We need the micro managers out there to do what they so good at..lay out a task plan and a supply line for the rest of us to follow.

Forget depending on giving your dollars to the big red..give it to someone who will implement a plan and direct the rest of us to it and lets get these people off those cots and into housing of some kind..Into real beds.

Most would like to be home..but home does not exist anymore..so get them to a place they can sleep.

We are going to have so many mental health problems with people becoming unable to cope unless they get some real privacy and rest.

Can you imagine it? on the floor of a football stadium sleeping on a cot head to head side to side with thousands of other people? How long will it take you to "lose" it if you had to cope with that?

I could not sleep..my mind would be a turmoil..I could not plan.

So lets break this down to a single person/single family problem and say ok here's the way to help them and go to it.

I not smart, I have limited resources, I old..but I am ready to help if the charts are out there so I find my nitch for that.

I know there are zillions of others out there waiting to help.

[*flo*]

Train someone to BE there and take histories, and identification and link up these families ..evidently they haven't trained their own people to do that yet.
Posted by: farmgirl | Sep 6, 2005 9:10:27 AM

Farmgirl, you maybe old, but there is always a position in a community for you.
Today we are being informed the Geneva-based (ICRC), International Committee of the Red Cross sent four tracing experts to help the American Red Cross reunite families split up by the disaster.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050906/tc_afp/usweatheraidicrcun_050906122201

read somewhere yesterday, (can't find the link), thailand and india were offering suggestions how to recover and identify the decease.

[farmgirl]

my server is having problems they say its the heavy influx of users from the Gulf impacting..do not know whether I can stay on or not..unable to do any emailfunctions..

strange..

This problem causes me great inconvenience..

will check posts when and if can get back on line and function.

but be prepared..we may be getting unreliable internet service in near future..

Might not be so bad for DSL but I am dial up...

Well that is going to pretty well top it off..no phones in gulf..no way to communicate and now the email is trashing on us.

[Isabell]

It is so much worse than anyone can imagine

[ellewoods]

Just wondering aloud, but why doesn't MSM et al issue a call for these evacuees' FAMILIES to come get them? I know that some do not have any families but most must! Who out there would not be embarrassed at the idea of your family member being taken in by strangers if you could help them for a while? Wouldn't most people if they have to relocate prefer to be near family especially after a major disaster like this?

The other thing I keep wondering about-why didn't the Mayor of New Orleans go out and comfort his citizens? He could have kept them updated (with what little there was to update them on) and let them know that help was coming and that he was asking for it. People do better with some information, even if it isn't the best, than no information. And I keep looking at this whole screw up-I know that it was bigger than expected and no one was ready for the flood. BUT, we have done hurricanes many times now and have the plan down. So I can't help but think it is not the Feds fault. The past few major hurricanes have hit Florida and Alabama and there was not this screw up. Now I know that many may think that GWB might have been taking care of his brother but that wouldn't apply to Alabama. So I can't help but think that the communication error failed with local and state officials.

I am just wondering aloud and not pointing fingers so no one attack me-please! Does anyone else think the same?

From what I hear, Mississippi REALLY needs help. Everyone is focused on New Orleans and they do show some of the Miss. coast but the storm went all the way through Mississippi. Every Mississippi Power customer lost power and all the big transmission lines are having to be redone with all the supports rebuilt. There are houses as far north as Jackson that are gone that I have heard of. The people inland are having trouble getting help from FEMA, Red Cross et al because so many resources have been sent to Louisiana. We in Alabama pale in comparison and will be OK in the long run. I am very thankful that our Governor sent much of our National Guard to Mississippi to help out. And many here are trying to send aid to Mississippi so if anyone out there can, please speak up for these folks and send what you can to them.

[mtgal]

Good Morning from Alabama.
Yesterday, when going to top off my gas tank, I saw a man with 15 each 2.5 gallon plastic gas cans. He had Mississippi tags so I went to talk with him. He was from Gulfport Ms. and had just moved into his new home he had built. The structure was still there but the entire bottom floor was over knee deep in water. He lived in a culdesac and all of his neighbors lost their homes down to the slab. He was the only one who had as of Tuesday, running water and people in the neighborhood was using his water and garden hose to shower in in yard. He was driving a Ford van he had borrowed from someone who lost there home to come to Montgomery for supplies, his vehicles were destroyed. Ala is out of 5 gal gas cans and he got the last 2.5 gal available. He said that Collera was breaking out in Gulfport and Biloxi. I told him how to get to the church where we have been gathering supplies. He was headed back to Gulfport to help his neighbors with the van loaded down with supplies. The nearest hotel room is north of Montgomery in Prattville AL.
God Bless this man and all others who lost all but their lives.

[ellewoods]

Hey mtgal-
I am in Montgomery too. Evangel Temple on Vaughn Road has an 18-wheeler out front all day this week that they are loading up and taking to the Mississippi gulf coast every day. They will take anything but have created a top ten list that all should take a look at:

1.Diapers
2. Baby food/formula
3. Baby Wipes
4. Gas Cans
5. First Aid Items
6. Underwear/T-shirts/Socks (New)Especially for adult male and female as many first responders are working non-stop and don't have a place to take a shower
7. Bleach
8. Plastic Tarps
9. Toilet Paper
10. Cash

At this website is a more comprehensive list of needs:

http://www.evangeltemple.org/hurricanesupport/EmergencyEquipment.pdf

[mtgal]

Ellewoods,
This weekend, I purchased many many items for relief and talked Walgreen in P'ville to matching some of what I purchased just from their store alone. I took it to my church in P'ville where they are collecting supplies for evacuees that are expected to arrive today in P'ville. They are converting an old closed nursing home into housing. Taking every 4th or 5th nursing home room and converting it into a kitchen so these people can become self sufficient as soon as possible. Also, I was told by the manager of Food World that 80% of all Dole refrigerated trucks used to ship bananas are being sent to the coast to use as morgues.

[usmcmom]

while we were sleeping, Al Queda took over a town in Iraq...accoring to Matt drudge...i knew it, as soon as the world realized that we were otherwise occupied they pounced.

Posted by: cathy | Sep 6, 2005 8:52:14 AM

Don't worry Cathy, we may be pre-occupied here in the continental 48, but over there the men and women know the business to which they are tasked. The military is capable of doing more than one thing at a time, as is the Federal government, and seemingly the officials of AL and MS.

All I pray at this time is, "Lord please give me the patience as I listen to another media anchor or media talking head whose ignorance of American Civics/Government is so overwhelming, I cannot fathom how they graduated high school. Please also Lord give me the ability to overcome hearing another race-baiting leader chastise American people of my skin color, while they are working 24/7 on a volunteer basis to comfort and help all those of another skin color. And to the millionaire Hollywood actors/actresses, with 3 and 4 homes each, who tell me how my middle-class countrymen and I are not doing enough and how my President is somehow criminally responsible for this Hurricane, well Lord a nice bout of laryngitis might be appropriate at this time...it won't really hurt them Lord. BUT most importantly... Please Lord, give Lt Gen Honore, and the men/women of the US military the ability to hold onto the strength of their convictions as they are chastised and ridiculed by the very people they are trying to help and rescue. Oh and yes Lord, please let Snowball and his boy be reunited and all the other Snowballs of this disaster. Amen

[ellewoods]

Good prayer usmcmom!!

Why doesn't Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al et al call for "their people" to come forth in a mass move to help? I know that many black churches are helping but it is the point that many of the black leaders have to focus on the negative instead of the positive. I know, I know, not all of them but the loudmouths certainly do.

[!]

Can we all start working on this case. thanks, Do what you can.

To whom it My Concern:

Do you have any information on John Thomas Emerick OR just Emerick? He lives on Belmont Street in Biloxi Mississippi. I am paralyzed now for 29 years he is 53 years old. Please help me find the only one left in my family. Accept me and him. Please find him I tried.

terryemerick@comcast.net
Or
terryemerick@hotmaik.com
253 460 6433

Posted by: terryemerick | Sep 3, 2005 4:11:47 AM

[coconuttree]

Good prayer usmcmom!!

Why doesn't Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al et al call for "their people" to come forth in a mass move to help? I know that many black churches are helping but it is the point that many of the black leaders have to focus on the negative instead of the positive. I know, I know, not all of them but the loudmouths certainly do
-----------------

Condoleezza Rice was there so shut up!!!

[usmcmom]

Shepherd Smith on Foxnews gave out a new web address for specifically helping the residents of Mississippi is is www.GovernorBarbour.com. Once on the website, there is further information as to what is happening on the ground. Also, there is an address at the site where you can send monetary donations to help the Mississippi Hurricane Relief Fund specifically.

[tuyvnsurvivor]

I agree with the above posted, the N Orleans mayor had every opportunity to drive a U Haul pulling a trailor all full of water and supplies, and set it out, or actually do some leadership right amoung his constituants. Several elected offices had opportunity to rise to the top, but did not. Many media people first giving seed to alarm, distrust and riot, as well missed on opportunities.

Plenty of blame to go around, hopefully any leader with a thing to do will obstain from criticizing, and let only has beens like me indulge. Refugees should not have been complacent about living below sea level, should follow instructions on evacuation, learn how to make a raft or float a frig, or mount a spare boat on the house roof. Gov should administer an exam, if IQ below 70, then disallowed to live below a levee or eat more chips with cheese.

I think Bush should have stayed stronger to his statement of the evacuation "is not good enough". FEMA head should have been fired on Tuesday, National Guard Gen relieved on Wed. Geraldo should have been jailed. No one should have cared more about what Harry Conick Jr and Celine Dion thought than yours truely. Corp of Engineers were a laugher at not fixing levees. Pittyful pittyfull...hope they stockpile some of the provissions I have suggested to them for repairing *this time, next time.

The Guard and military is over taxed, give them a cheer when you can...how about those Coast Guard. Oh, and I have done rescues, over 60 of them, never heard of or dreamed of wondering if someones color is suitable to my rescue efforts. Rescue is addictive/obsession, feeds off itself, and rescuers universally will go into their own death to save someone.

And thanks Dan. My guess is that when the wider story is told, some non minority areas faired as badly, with less attention or lent resources.

Up at the shelter here last night, a comment came out about 'don't want no used clothes, I want new s '. Not exactly as rosey as Greta makes it out to be. Very very expenssive guests, that change the security of the neighborhood. Lot of guns being bought here.

On a good note, less on digs or misplaced humor, things are going much better now. I donate to a church charity local to our area, they are 100% volunteer labor, 0 ripoff...no I am not a religeous one myself.

One day soon we get to hearing lots and lots of demands. Gonna get real racist like, just know that is what the media wants to interview. Jesse Jackson full of interviews + of himself...who can understand what he means...can anyone that likes him read him if in print? It is coming, ear to the ground gets the rumble.

Wow, the graft, greed and corruption that will manifest in the rebuilding of N Orleans. Private interest will make the biggest bank robbery of all time. Lips are smacking over how to get rich*er off Katrina.

[TheAlamo]

One day soon we get to hearing lots and lots of demands. Gonna get real racist like, just know that is what the media wants to interview. Jesse Jackson full of interviews + of himself...who can understand what he means...can anyone that likes him read him if in print? It is coming, ear to the ground gets the rumble.

Wow, the graft, greed and corruption that will manifest in the rebuilding of N Orleans. Private interest will make the biggest bank robbery of all time. Lips are smacking over how to get rich*er off Katrina.

Posted by: tuyvnsurvivor | Sep 6, 2005 4:33:24 PM

Good post. You got it right. I was watching Opra and a couple of reporters have made race the issue. How sick. I notice that almost all of the rescuers are white....wonder how that happened?
Next thing you know these idiots will pass a law mandating that hurricanes hit "equally." You might be smug at that, but it is, in fact, not any more ludicrous than any other type of "quota" these idiots have passed.
People need help. I haven't heard of one rescuer, or local, that helped others ask what color they were before they provided the help. This is a media power plan and we will see it grow as time goes on.
Hey! How about Mississippi--they didn't get equal news coverage. Wonder why the media doesn't practice what it preaches?

[ellewoods]

Wow, coconuttree, I certainly didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. I just mean that Jesse and company are so negative that I think they are doing the black community a disservice. I have nothing but tremendous respect for Condi Rice and am proud to call her a fellow Alabamian. I just think that when Jesse and company keep telling people that they are getting the worst end of the stick, they start to believe it and don't think better of themselves. Sorta like "a child learns what they hear"-tell them they are very capable and a good person and they will tend to believe it. Jesse is not telling the black community anything good about themselves. Therefore, they are going to think the worst about themselves and never strive for more.

Oprah was incredible with some rather eye opening shots. She is doing a follow up tomorrow.

Peace all~

[Ron]

Ok Ok Security and help starts with each person.(# 1 )A person chose to live below sea level knowing that the levees could only take a cat.3 hurricane.Its the responsibilty of that person to make plans for a safe escape from danger if so warned before time and which they where Told it was gonna be a cat 5..Its not the responsibility of the goverment to determine where you live are to baby sit you.This is america you had a choice.Now for those that couldn't get out(#2) then thats the responsiblity of the family(#3) and the instutition they are in ,if they are in, say a nurseing home are hosp..After that it lies with the local goverment,Because most people pay taxes for this(#4) The Mayor to see that everone gets out even if its by force,I rather be dead wrong than dead.He had boats,planes,school buses,city buses and know telling how many railroad cars.He had plenty of cell phones and comunication before the storm.Enforce contra flow with all roads out in one direction except 2 so the right persons could get into the city.If this was done,there would be no looting,no worry about rescues and could take care of the things that needed then.SURRRRRRRRRReee he would be talked about BAD But like i said I rather be dead wrong then dead!!!!! I chose to live in north Louisiana were Tornadoes hit and i made it my responsibilty to build a storm shelter and stocked it with things i needed.People has to take responsibilty for their on well being. So now what say you!!!!

[ellewoods]

THIS IS AN AMAZING ACCOUNT!

This is a gut-wrenching story that appeared on the front page of the Dallas Morning News. The reporter is a cousin of the copter pilot and was dropped in the hospital the middle of last week when we were trying to evacuate.

Medical center struggled to keep patients, staff alive

Sudeep Reddy

09/04/2005

Dallas Morning News

NEW ORLEANS – They awoke Tuesday morning relieved. Hurricane Katrina had passed, and life for everyone inside Memorial Medical Center would soon return to normal.

Then the water started rising.

Dr. Bill Armington noticed an oily black puddle bubbling up from the sewer into the street. It pushed away leaves and debris as it grew.

"It was going the wrong way," he said. "Then it came faster and faster."

The hospital in uptown New Orleans would soon be submerged in 12 feet of water, contaminated with sewage and chemicals.

Over the next 72 hours, the people inside Memorial banded together as best they could – first to keep their patients alive, then to improvise evacuation plans with the few resources at their disposal.

Over three days, gunshots pierced the air in the flooded residential neighborhoods around Memorial. The stench of sweat and human waste filled hospital hallways. Patients died as they lay splayed in sweltering heat on a parking garage floor, waiting desperately for helicopters.

The facility quickly ran out of body bags – and eventually room in the chapel, which had become the morgue.

The roughly 2,000 patients, employees and family members inside knew little about the chaos unfolding in other corners of New Orleans . They were living their own hell, furiously trying to respond as events outside thwarted their plans inside at almost every turn.

"I've seen desperation," said nurse Darrel Sullivan, who had been in war zones for the Army, resting in a wheelchair and sipping juice in the parking garage after lifting patients. "But I've never seen this before in my life."

Hurricanes were nothing new for Memorial. They'd become a seasonal certainty in its 80 years on Napoleon Avenue. Patients who could leave would leave. Backup generators would stock up on fuel in case the power grid went down. Staffing levels, food and supplies would be prepped.

As Hurricane Katrina approached last Sunday, the long-rehearsed plans went into effect.

Employees brought their husbands, wives, parents and pets to sit out the storm. Several brought teenage kids. Four-year-old Zachary Perry tagged along with his father, hospital chef Scott Perry. Zachary's mother – a nurse at another area hospital – took his 6-year-old sister with her.

Those permitted to be there Sunday received wristbands, helping security block outsiders looking for shelter.

By Sunday night, the hospital had about 2,000 people, including 260 patients. The electricity flashed out early Monday morning. Clocks froze at 4:55 a.m. Air conditioning shut down. But ventilators, hallway lighting and other key equipment ran off backup generators.

Doctors began making plans to return to regular schedules. Some went home to shower, others simply took a walk along the dry neighborhood streets to view Katrina's damage.

'From bad to desperate'

But early Tuesday, the levees protecting New Orleans failed.

Hospital team leaders held emergency meetings that morning to evaluate the situation. "It went from bad to desperate," said Ann Seal, a director of nurses.

The staff still had to prepare three meals a day for 2,000 people, with special dietary provisions for patients.

Fifteen workers slapped turkey, ham and chicken salad between slices of bread. Breakfast consisted of grits, an egg and sausage crammed into a coffee cup, with a plastic cover on top. They were the last hot meals served. By day's end, the kitchen was underwater.

Lacking enough equipment, a doctor ventilated a palm-sized baby by hand for the helicopter trip to Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge.

That was the last time the Memorial staff would know where its patients had gone. Others went wherever the helicopters could land – to New Orleans International Airport, other hospitals, on the ground somewhere.

Through Tuesday, hospital administrators were still communicating regularly with executives at Dallas' Tenet Healthcare, which owns Memorial. But once e-mail went down, so did links with the headquarters.

Guards tried to keep everyone out. Officials feared looting – of food, hospital equipment, drugs in the pharmacy. Gunfire erupted during the day and night in the area.

Hospital officials took their own measures to protect those inside. The hospital CEO carried a sidearm, visible on his belt. So did the chief operating officer, a few engineers and members of the security team.

Still, people tried to climb in through windows, the parking garage or any of two dozen entry points to the hospital. Some simply wanted shelter, but the hospital couldn't take anyone else.

Two patients with stab wounds – a mother stabbed in the chest by her daughter, and a drunk man who had been hit in the abdomen – were taken in and lifted away.

As evacuations continued Tuesday night, pilots said they wouldn't land without lights. Until that day, Memorial's helipad hadn't been used for years. But now they had little choice.

So engineers taped down flashlights around the helipad, allowing some choppers to land. The electricians found construction lights on cords and tied them down to the helipad with medical gauze. They built extension cords to stretch down nine floors.

Late Tuesday night, the backup electricity started cutting out. Fuel for the generators was secure in underground tanks, but the electrical system was being flooded. As the water level rose, breakers clipped out.

Unthinkable conditions

By 5 a.m. Wednesday, the building no longer had power. Memorial Medical Center was no longer a hospital.

Batteries on ventilators on the acute care floor went dead. The patients would survive as long as nurses could manage to manually compress the bags attached to ventilation masks. Eventually, the patients could only receive comfort measures in their final moments.

A man swam toward the hospital with his dehydrated 3-year-old son. The hospital offered to take the baby, but not the father. But he wouldn't leave without his son, so he took the boy back and left.

"People think of a hospital as a refuge," said Dr. Timothy Allen, an anesthesiologist. "This was no longer a refuge. This was a place where people would die if they weren't evacuated."

The building had no running water, no communication, no power. Blood, urine and feces filled toilets that couldn't flush. Patients who had been in stable condition turned critical. Guests started getting ill as well.

Some rooms were already considered too hot or unsafe because of gunfire outside, and patients were moved into hallways where pods of fans had been rigged together.

Employees and guests were cut back to two meals a day, trying to preserve food after much had been lost in the flooding. They had to prepare to stay as long as possible.

A few family members of patients complained about the conditions. But almost everyone else jumped in to help. Employees' titles effectively disappeared.

Evacuation plans became more creative. The goal: Speed up the process to move people out.

Some pets were thrown alive over the edge of buildings, into the fetid waters around the hospital. A doctor decided to euthanize pets that their owners couldn't take.

The elevators were dead. So the 187 remaining patients had to be carried from the seventh floor in one building to the helipad on the 11th floor of the neighboring parking garage.

The teams first used six handheld radios to communicate between the floors. Then the batteries died.

Workers created a human chain, relaying messages through people stationed at every level of the stairwell and across the parking garage.

Chains also formed to carry patients out to departure points. They tried to build a slide ramp using padded mats to move patients between floors instead of lifting them. It wasn't safe enough, and they ditched the plan.

Choppers were arriving slowly for evacuations, but boats became an easier means of transportation. The emergency room ramp had been flooded, so they knocked out the windows and moved people into arriving boats.

Airboats, fishing boats, flatboats, rafts. Nobody knew where they were coming from. People floated up with their own boats. Some grabbed boats that were adrift without owners, hot-wiring the motors.

Eric Yancovich, the head of maintenance, used rope to attach a rowboat to a motorboat, doubling the number of people who could leave.

The boaters received simple directions: Go down the street, turn right at Napoleon, then 12 blocks to St. Charles.

There, the water met road. Buses, cars and ambulances could take patients away – somewhere.

"We weren't exactly sure what we were sending the patients to," Dr. Armington said. "But we felt it was better than what we had here."

The workers created a second boat exit from the parking garage. But getting people there proved difficult.

Engineers realized that patients could move through a 4-by-4 hole in the boiler room.

Like a rescue out of a coalmine, the workers used their human chain to carry patients down flights of stairs into the cramped space lit up with flashlights.

They went through the hole onto the second floor of the parking garage, into the back of a Ford F-150 pickup. The truck took them to the ninth floor, where they were carried up two flights of old, rusty stairs to the helipad.

The last patient out was "Mr. Rodney." He was 450 pounds, hospitalized for lung disease and a gall bladder removal.

Teamwork

Early Thursday evening, 24 people joined in the effort. Eighteen stood around the stretcher inside the boiler room, sweat pouring off them. Six more people were on the other side of the hole.

"One, two, three!"

Mr. Rodney slid through the square, where he was grabbed and pushed onto the truck.

"The last patients are out."

The boiler room erupted in cheers, followed by a group hug. On the other side, they still had to continue treating their patient.

"How much O2 was he on?" one nurse cried out.

"He was on 4," another said.

"Shouldn't he be on 2?" one more voice said.

"3. Put him on 3."

Mr. Rodney was driven to the top of the garage and carried up the stairs

One by one, dozens had been moved the same way. Urine and feces rolled off the beds and onto the workers, forcing them all to wipe down with sanitizing liquid every time.

Patients who could walk up stairs were marked with an X on their foreheads. Others were segregated based on which choppers could take them.

Some helicopters didn't show, forcing the staff to move patients from the parking garage back inside the same way they came in – through the boiler room.

Those who waited in the garage lay in parking spaces, on the mattresses from their hospital beds. They sat quietly, sweating and gasping for air as employees fanned them and held their hands.

Some died as they waited.

"We had him sitting in the garage for five hours," Roberta Stewart, a hospital administrator, said of one patient. "Nobody came."

Bodies were wrapped in sheets and left in the chapel. Others were placed along hospital hallways. Employees took patient wristbands to try to notify families later.

As two workers walked through the parking garage Thursday evening, they tried to locate which vehicle had a body inside. They couldn't remember where the body had been placed, and were forced to leave it.

Nobody could remember the death toll. A few estimated it at perhaps 20 patients in the last two days there. Normally, 20 patients die with 1,000 monthly admissions.

Even as they lost patients they had carried through the hospital, most people tried to focus instead on how many more they could save if they acted faster.

"I know a lot of people in the hospital didn't make it out," said Dave Matherne, who stayed to help even after his stepfather, a patient, had been evacuated. "That's not the point. The people we got out is."

Risky operation

By Thursday afternoon, Memorial was down to 37 patients and 120 employees and family members.

State police eventually wouldn't guard any more boats, employees said. It was too dangerous. But people were sent out anyway, police protection or not. Eventually, workers said, government responders had commandeered some of the boats that had been used, shutting down the operation.

Tenet executives had already realized that the government rescues were taking too long and hired private helicopters to help get everyone out of its hospitals.

Choppers arrived from across the region. A Puma helicopter rushed in from Montana. It was better suited for hauling cargo and supplies, but 20 people could pile in – five or six times more than most others would take.

It arrived Thursday afternoon, but could only do one trip. Tom Uglialoro, hired late Wednesday night to oversee Tenet’s private rescue effort, said the military had commandeered all the fuel in the area. The Puma pilots were running low.

Everyone had left the parking garage by nightfall Thursday, waiting on a ramp leading up to the helipad and on a gravel rooftop one level down.

The garage was covered with trash and medical equipment. Used gloves, shoes, pillows, stretchers, blankets and cups were littered everywhere. Pet cages lined the walls. Two seven-pound cans of opened ravioli, spoons sticking out from the top, sat along the edge of walls with other leftovers.

One young nurse who had been lifting heavy patients all day collapsed on the ramp, his legs shaking as nurses and doctors crowded around. They guessed that he broke a rib while lifting a wheelchair patient into a chopper. Doctors concluded he might have a bruised lung. He was loaded onto a Coast Guard helicopter and taken away.

By dark, most military choppers had been grounded because of concerns about gunfire in the region. Later, even with a small portable generator feeding the rigged landing lights, the private helicopters were grounded because of fog.

For the remaining 75 employees and their families, some of the only time to reflect came Thursday night after patients were gone.

"This has been the most horrifying thing I've ever experienced in my life," said hospital catering manager Sal Armato, wearing women's tennis shoes four sizes too small because his had been soaked.

He had to be there this time, he said, "but I don't think I'd do it again."

Employees would be gone by morning, but few knew what was next.

"Almost all of us lost our homes," said Rene Goux, Memorial's CEO. "But no one has had time to focus on that."

Sleep at last

That night, most slept along the side of a walkway leading to the ramp, below windows that had been shattered. About 20 sprawled out on the helipad, with the rocky asphalt surface poking against their heads and backs. But with all the patients finally gone, it was the first time some employees had slept in days.

The area was mostly silent that night, except for occasional rumbling as people seemed to enter nearby buildings. New Orleans was pitch black, except for the stars and a few distant lights.

Every few minutes a Coast Guard chopper could be seen flying somewhere over the city, at times hovering over a site to perform a rescue operation.

At 4:34 a.m. Friday, a flash of bright light from behind downtown broke the darkness. What first seemed like lightning grew intense, pulsated, then turned red and ballooned. Smoke rose into the air.

Mr. Uglialoro picked up the satellite phone to call his operations center in Dallas. They warned the FAA that a quicker rescue might be needed, in case it was a chemical explosion with winds coming toward Memorial.

Just after dawn, workers threw trash from the helipad over the edge of the building to keep it from flying at them when helicopters landed. The entire city had already become a giant trashcan.

After sunrise, dozens of choppers began flying over the city. The first flight lifted off at 7:46 a.m. with about 20 people.

It was the first of six flights – with Tenet’s hired helicopters, Navy Seahawks and Army Black Hawks – that would quickly take everyone else away.

Other military choppers queued up over Memorial, ready to come down like a choreographed ballet. They wouldn't be needed.

Memorial's last survivors climbed onto the Puma at 8:21 a.m.

Four minutes later, they were gone.

[usmcmom]

Four minutes later, they were gone.

Posted by: ellewoods | Sep 6, 2005 7:12:49 PM

Great story!! It is going to be amazing the stories of heroism that come out of this hurricane/flooding saga. Thank God that Tenet Healthcare had such creative employees. I guess from this, all hospitals are now going to have to seriously take a look at their emergency plans. It seemed weird that Tenet would be relying on the government to evacuate their patients. I'm sure that is a scenario that all hospitals will now have to be responsible for.

[!]

OMG...These hospital workers are heros. What a story. It sounds like a movie. Almost too Unreal to know that indeed it was for real.
Hundreds and hundreds of stories just like this one all over the Gulf Coast.
I hope we hear about many more of them.
God Bless all the people that were any part of of this catastrophy.

[!]

If you just have to have someone to blame, then Blame mother Nature. Blame the French for building the city of New Orleans on below sea level land all the way back to 1701.
New Orleans has been there waiting for the big one to come just like California awaits the Big one there !!
To start blasting our goverment at any level is disgusting. Its over and done with. It happened, now is the time to help the victims. Its not the time to blast anyone. Not anyone. AND.....if you do you are worse than whomever it is you want to blast !! So stop it and grown up and move on. HELP ALL THESE PEOPLE ANY WAY YOU CAN NO MATTER HOW SMALL OR HOW LARGE, IT ALL ADDS UP ! SO PUT UP OR SHUT UP.!!
God bless all the people who were the victims of this and God bless all the people who are trying to help. !! All of them.!!

Maybe the French will come back and help build
New Orleans back but do it the right way this time !!

[ellewoods]

We have just gotten off the phone with an old friend from New Orleans whom we finally just found. His house did not flood but his families' did as it was near the levee. He said the levee was so poorly designed that they have worried about it for some time. But most never realized just how much that place would flood. Fortunately, our friend could not sleep the Saturday night before and ended up going and getting his parents in the wee hours of the morning. They had planned to stay-if they had, they would have been in the same situation as those we have sadly seen on TV.

But, he did say that from looking at MSM you would think all of New Orleans was completely ruined. He says that is not the case. In fact, his family business is just fine but they are not allowed back in to resume operations. He has found 75% of his employees (some they went and found at the Super Dome) who are mostly hourly that he would love to put back to work.

I am sure that there are many businesses that are not "ruined" that would love to resume operations but aren't allowed to. I think people who own businesses like that are probably in one of the worst positions. How frustrating!

[lin]

ellewoods what kind of business would be of any use to the people of New Orleans now. Not to many people left there.

[ellewoods]

They have a product which is sold outside of New Orleans as well-in fact, all over the US. Thus the frustration-that they could maintain the company for a while until they see where the future of NO is heading. It is a small family business so any down time is crucial.