Heard a chilling NO story tonight...

[benburch]

This is paraphrased from a posting on a mailing list a friend is on.

Seems that rescuers came upon a nursing home where the employees could not get anybody to help them evacuate the residents, and finally had to leave to save themselves. ALL of the residents were dead.

[AlCzervik]

1. i heard the same thing on cnn, i think it was cnn

[marshall]

7. Who is to blame???

Wasn't there any plan set up for evacuating these people? Who is responsible???

[magellan]

2. Is this the nursing home in St. Bernard Parish?

CNN said something about a nursing home in St. Bernard Parish that wasn't evacuated, implying there were many dead inside. They didn't go into detail.

[benburch]

3. Don't know.

The implication was that it was in NO, but I never had the original text.

[AlCzervik]

8. i think thats the one.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Unspeakably horrible. Humanity in so many ways has not progressed

even though this country pretends it has.

[DemBones DemBones]

5. Remember the Jefferson Parish president telling about his

Director of Emergency Assistance's mother? She called her son every day -- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, asking for help and he kept assuring her someone was going to come.

She was in a nursing home and she drowned on Friday night.

[walldude]

9. Remember? I'll never forget that as long as I live.

My blood went cold when I saw that clip. The amount of pain and horror in that clip compounded by thousands.. I can't wrap my brain around it.

[blonndee]

11. Neither will I. That was scarring...as were the pictures of our elders

who were abandoned at the Convention Center.

America treats its seniors like absolute garbage, and it's time to do some serious activism on their behalf. Seems like the elderly are among, if not THE, MOST disenfranchised among us. It's despicable.

[ultraist]

6. Nursing home residents, last to be evacuated, many die

http://www.elderlawanswers.com/resources/article.asp?id=4903§ion=4

Nursing Home Residents Among Last to Be Evacuated; Many Die

Last Updated: 9/5/2005


In the largest refugee operation in U.S. history, nursing homes were among the last facilities to be evacuated from New Orleans, following hospitals and the downtown Superdome and convention center. An untold number of nursing home residents may have been left behind in the desolated city.

At St. Rita's Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish, 31 of 80 frail residents perished before rescuers could get to them, said Joseph Donchess, executive director of the Louisiana Nursing Home Association.

Evacuating nursing homes may be the most challenging aspect of public health. ElderLawAnswers has been able to identify at least 30 nursing homes in and around New Orleans, likely housing thousands of the city's frailest elderly and disabled citizens.

Viewers of NBC's "Meet the Press" heard one typically heartbreaking story. Aaron Broussard, the president of Jefferson Parish (a Louisiana county adjacent to New Orleans), broke down in tears in recouning the ordeal of the elderly mother of one parish employee who was trapped in a nursing home awaiting rescuers who never came.
"Every day she called him and said, `Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?'" Mr. Broussard said.
Con't...

[anarchy1999]

10. I've heard the same story told here in Dallas by a reputable source,

a friend he grew up living next door to, and is a legislator now in the 96th district, mother was in a nursing home and all of the residents perished, drowned. I was told this on Sunday and the person telling me is a very well known pastor and activist, he was missing at least 11 family members when I spoke with him on Sunday night.

The story can be verified.

[marshall]

12. How do they know?

How do "they" know that the employees tried to get help in evacuation? If the residents are all dead who is left to tell the tale? I certainly wouldn't imagine the workers would rush forward to admit that they abandoned those poor people.

[anarchy1999]

14. The part about employees abandoning the home was not related to me,

but it doesn't sound out of the realm of possibilities and I'm sure there are more than likely more than just one nursing home.

[benburch]

15. There comes a time when you know you will die if you stay.

And when you know that you staying will not save a soul.

Same happens in shipwrecks.

[marshall]

16. It's just a shame

It's a shame that you see images of people who won't even leave their dog, and yet these poor elderly people got left behind.

[jillan]

13. It's right up there with leaving them in the morgue to die. n/t