Torrents of anger and sadness follow nursing home deaths (St Rita's)

[rainbow4321]

**Long** but good article on what happened at St Rita's...
including how family members evacuated the parish after talking to the owners and were assured the patients were being sent elsewhere. Canadian Mounties made their way into the parish long before US feds were seen.


http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/091805dntexkatstritas.2dcf8df.html

St. Rita's residents were regular working folks, elders of big, sprawling families. They were fishermen and artists, a one-time bag lady, a retired teacher, a card-carrying Teamster who loved growing vegetables and played the clarinet.

<snip>

"Be nice to your kids. THEY'LL CHOOSE YOUR NURSING HOME," read a blue bumper sticker stuck on his office window, still visible days after the devastating flood.

<snip>

There, the water was only four feet deep, so he began moving inside. "I bumped into a body floating. It was an elderly female. ...five foot into the building, I bumped into another body. ... I walked 10 feet into the main hallway. I bumped into another body. I didn't go any further because I knew what I'd find."

<snip>

Earline Labatt, an 84-year-old grandmother, survived the flood only to die days later of infections from the storm water, moaning about alligators and rising water, said her daughter, Jeannie Bachemin.

[hedgehog]

1. These people shouldn't be scapegoated.

The building was strong enough to withstand wind, but they didn't understand that there was a flood surge coming. It sounds like a lot of people thought the same as they did. If the surge hadn't been as high, those people would have been better off there than at the Super Dome.

By the way, did I read the article right that people from St. Bernard's evacuated to the Super Dome?

[rainbow4321]

2. They were supposed to move some residents there but it didn't happen

From the article:

She added that she had no way to move some of her most fragile patients because ambulances that had agreed to move five of St. Rita's residents to the New Orleans Superdome had never shown up.

<snip>

She said she last saw the Manganos in a boat, headed back to St. Rita's to search the murky, stinking water again. Eventually, she said, she and her family were taken to the Algiers Ferry and loaded onto buses bound for the Houston Astrodome.

[hedgehog]

3. So people evacuated from St. Bernard's parish to the AstroDome

after the hurricane? It sounds like the owners at St. Rits's were going with the flow. They had a generator and a brick building. They thought they were safe.