I've seen two guys in my office, checking out a Toyota Prius on the web. I'm actually thinking about trading in our van on a Ford Focus Wagon or Pontiac Vibe or something. The fuel savings wouldn't be immense, but we avoid driving the van and it's sort of odd to drive everywhere in the old, tiny car.

There's no excuse for this happening. No. Fucking. Excuse. Five fucking days after the hurricane and they still hadn't evacuated the hospitals? Which, incidentally, were out of drugs, electricity, food or water? How do you get a hole like that in your relief efforts?

********

9/2/2005, 12:26 p.m. CT
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Evacuations resumed Friday at some of New Orleans' most troubled hospitals where desperate doctors were being forced to make tough choices about which patients got dwindling supplies of food, water and medicines.

Rescuers finally made it into Charity Hospital, the largest public hospital and trauma center in the city, where gunshots prevented efforts on Thursday to evacuate more than 220 patients.

"We moved all of the babies out of Charity this morning," said Keith Simon, spokesman for Acadian Ambulance Service Inc.

Richard Zuschlag, the ambulance company's president, said the military was handling the evacuation of Charity and other hospitals in the flooded downtown.

Relatives of Dr. L. Lee Hamm, chairman of medicine at Tulane University, also reported that they received a text message from him around midday Friday, confirming that evacuations were taking place at Charity and nearby University Hospital, where more than 1,000 patients, family members, staff and people from the community had huddled.

David, I think it is really appalling. Particularly when the hospitals have been calling CNN and everyone with SOSes

This is fucking sick. I guess some people are just disposable, huh?

I'm up to my eyeballs in stupid work issues, but I wanted to pop in with hugs for Heather and Dana. You can always tell us what's going on. We're here for you, in whatever way we can be.

And -t, there are no words. I'm so glad you and your DH are safe. Much punctuation to you and your family.

Bush is on TV. He. keeps. calling. reufgees. 'folks'.

Awww, fuck. There are still 8-10,000 people in the Superdome. They're basically living inside a blacked out garbage heap buried in shit.

More than that, I've heard.

This is neat. A name I just ran across in our database: Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh

I am so relieved to hear from -t.

I can't even talk about NO because I just feel lik esomeone needs to go in there and take over and I am paralyzed by my uselessness.

It is just a big snowballing mess.

The mobilization was late so the people are angry.

The emergency workers are now in danger from the angry people

Now no one can get help. But coworkers (I work at a nursing school now, one with a "disaster nursing" track) have heard from doctors and nurses down there who say they are afraid to go in the Superdome because there are rapes and murders going on all around them.

So the people get more and more desperate. And workers get more and more scared.

Also, ita, try the links here. They are very comprehensive.

[link]

University of Wisconsin, Illinois at Chicago, and Chicago Loyola have all jumped on the bandwagon of offering automatic admittance and financial aid packages to displaced students. I know a lot of other are doing the same.

Someone I know in Memphis said:

The University of Memphis is allowing students from Loyola, Southern Miss, and Tulane to pick up their course curriculum (or as close as possible) and attend classes on our campus, waiving any tuition for students who have a paid tuition on file at their previous school (other schools in the state followed suit). The University of Tennessee medical research and science facilities are taking all the misplaced medical students.