Tuesday, July 24, 2007

How fast can you hand-wheel out of the path of a 450mi wide issue?

How fast can you hand-wheel out of the path of a 450mi wide issue?


Hurricane Katrina destroyed, killed, and left many, many people homeless. For those of us who survived we have many things to be thankful for, however, we have many questions to ask our local politicians, our parish leaders, our state government. This is just one question that I cannot answer alone. "Why were some nursing homes not evacuated?" Given the immensity of the storm, the lay of the land, and the mandatory evacuation orders, the failure to evacuate or the failure of the evacuation plan is still unfathomable where the nursing homes are concerned.

Foti is under a gag order concerning the "levees" in the St. Rita's nursing home case. I don't think that he would be the only one to ask concerning the levee failures. The lawyer(s) for the nursing home owners contend that the levees are to blame for the deaths of residents after hurricane Katrina struck. I believe I would be asking the Louisiana Nursing Home Association a few questions. St. Rita's was not the only nursing home that for whatever reasons did not evacuate.

A recent meeting of healthcare professionals dubbed a "Nursing Home Hurricane Summit" indicated that nursing homes lacked buses for evacuation. The meeting participants from "...Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and other states was sponsored by Florida Health Care Association and a national nonprofit, The John A. Hartford Foundation, which is paying for a study on ways to improve nursing homes' disaster preparedness, " according to Victor Hull of the Herald Tribune.com Hull said, "Lack of transportation proved fatal when Hurricane Katrina slammed the northern Gulf Coast in 2005, and caused problems for Florida during Hurricane Charley a year earlier. Despite those vivid lessons, many nursing home administrators and disaster planners say facility residents remain vulnerable because no solution has been found to guarantee rides when storms force evacuations."

Consolidated Safety Services Inc., Vice President, Robert A. Watkins stated that nursing homes should "look out for themselves, rather than waiting for the government or someone else to solve the problem." There were some nursing homes who took the bull by the horns in order to evacuate in a timely fashion, I'm certain. The media is not covering the success stories of some of these evacuations and is leaving the investigation of the failure to evacuate to a bunch of lawyers. My confidence in the media dwindles daily as journalists like Victor Hull seemingly struggle to get the word out. His article singularly points out that this is a transportation issue - not a levee issue as the defense contends in the St. Rita's case.

I do not understand how the American Health Care Association can claim FEMA rescued anyone. (The preceding links are to articles concerning the "Hurricane Summit" from AHCA. Search term "evacuations" at AHCA.) From LQ @ Newsvine.

More from LQ @ WordPress

Posted in St. Bernard, Hurricane Recovery, Caskets, Associated Press, evacuation, levee, Jefferson, Long Term Care, Nagin, DRA, Levees, Capitol Hill, Arkansas, GIS, LSU, LiveJournal, CNN, Louisiana, LinkedIn, Tennessee, Mississippi, Baton Rouge, bayou, Beaumont, CRPC, Bayou Buzz, evacuee, St. Rita's, Delta Regional Authority, da_parish, poor planning, FEMA Trailer, THE National Gaurd, Louisiana GIS, ARRL, Nursing Home, Carolina's, Displaced, Katrina Radio, Slidell, Hurricane Insurance, NOLA.com, Katrina Evictions, lawsuit, Disaster, recovery, California, Hurricane Katrina, USA, Texas, Dallas, Social Justice, Virginia, polls, military, politics, Radio, Houston, Katrina, Colorado, Media, Housing, opinion, Hurricane, FEMA, Government, transportation, Election, debate, South Carolina, New Orleans, North Carolina, emergency, Governor, DNA, Corruption, Poverty, public, Oklahoma, Seattle, Ohio, Alert, controversy, White House, Washington, Death, Alabama, News |

No comments: