Why didn't FEMA evacuate the Hospitals before the storm?

[DoYouEverWonder]

What was FEMA's plan for evacuating hospitals after a Mandatory Evacuation Order is issued?

It is apparent that they made no attempt to do anything for the hospitals and nursing homes, which is where the most needy people would be. This also left behind 100's if not 1000's of nurses, doctors and staff who had no choice but to stay with their patients, putting themselves in grave danger as a result.

Why didn't FEMA do anything to help evacuate these places before the storm? Isn't that one of their jobs when you have to evacuate an area because of an emergency?

[Lindsay]

1. That was the mayor's job, doncha know.

Shoulda put those patients in them there school buses.

:sarcasm:

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Seems Nagin did at least try that

apparently it didn't work out very well.



UPDATED: 9:26 am CDT August 29, 2005


3 Die While Fleeing Storm

An official with the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner's Office said three residents of a New Orleans nursing home fleeing Hurricane Katrina aboard a school bus died Sunday during an evacuation to a Baton Rouge church.

The names, ages and sexes of the dead were not available.

Don Moreau, chief of operations, said the coroner's office responded to a call from emergency medical technicians to a Baptist church, which was the destination for the bus of nursing home patients. Once there, Moreau said one person was dead inside the church and another was found dead inside the bus.

He said the person in the bus appeared to have been dead for some time.

Moreau said the others on the bus, 21 people, were transported to Earl K. Long Hospital, where a third nursing home resident later died.

The coroner's office has not determined a cause of death for any of the three. However, Moreau said many people on the bus were suffering from dehydration.

It is not known how long the bus was on the road, but many other travelers reported drive times from the New Orleans area to Baton Rouge of several hours.

http://www.wdsu.com/news/4909184/detail.html

[YDogg]

2. BUSH = FUBAR

[ForrestGump]

3. Good question

And maybe this wasn't the case here but, in my experience, the air is usually preternaturally calm directly after a hurricane...why weren't helicoters everywhere immediately after the hurricane passed? Hospitals, nursing homes, etc, should have been evacuated fully before the storm but there's no excuse for not getting in to them immediately after. Of course, the same goes for the entire city of New Orleans -- if camera crews can get in, rescue workers can get in.

I'm looking forward to see how the slimeballs who run this country justify FEMA not only failing to respond but -- it would seem -- actively hampering rescue and relief efforts. They're busted, by trustworthy witnesses on national TV...so what are they going to say? Nothing?

[Generic Other]

6. Because they thought they had weathered the worst at that point

The breeched levee and rising water came after everyone had let out a collective sigh of relief.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. That doesn't get them off the hook

for not trying to evacate the hospitals before the storm, while the whole city was under a mandatory evac and Katrina was still a Cat. 5.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. It was Clinton's fault

:)