Speaking of Health Care: Healthcare costs spike again Yikes.

Mom sent me an email from my step-dad this morning. He runs the public transportation system back home. I know there's been a lot of carping on that photo of all the flooded busses, but here's a first-hand account from his friend who runs the RTA in NO that was printed in Passenger Transport.

Step-dad says: "Bill Deville is the General Manager and a good friend of mine. He is now working to blend the RTA into Baton Rouge's system, which has become severely overloaded with the large numbers of evacuees now in Baton Rouge. I am sending this to a lot of you who asked what RTA did when they found out about Katrina. It also shows how difficult it is when the workers doing the evacuating are battling the same problems as the evacuees -"

"The Office of Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security contacted us, wanting us to play a role in evacuating those who couldn't get themselves out. This was Saturday [Aug. 27]. We set up a "war room" on the third floor of our Canal Street facility, with communications, satellite computer access, etc. We had dry food, water, about 100 air mattresses. Over 100 operators volunteered to help out. We also invited their immediate families to join us at the facility: spouses, kids, elderly folks-a total of about 200 people.

The mayor set up about 12 evacuation points in the city where we had our operators and buses going back and forth, to bring those who were there to the Superdome, which they were calling the refuge of last resort. A number of paratransit operators assisted ambulances that were taking sick people to Baton Rouge.

We started immediately preparing and strategizing on Saturday, and began operations Sunday morning [Aug. 28]. We did the bus evacuations all day long, and were quite successful in getting a lot of folks out.

We learned later that the storm was going to be a lot worse than we had anticipated. We had to stop operations because the weather was getting bad-that was around nightfall on Sunday. We told some operators, rather than come back from evacuating people to Baton Rouge, stay there after making their deliveries. Some were able to come back before the curfew in the city.

The storm was getting worse, the wind howling, rain pouring down, and it was pretty bad by early Monday morning [Aug. 29], but the building where we were was still in pretty good shape. The electricity was off, but we were able to operate with backup generators.

When daylight came Monday morning, we could see how the storm was ravaging the city. We still felt OK because, while the street was flooding, the water level was not high enough to affect our building.

Later that day, we saw that the water level had risen substantially, to the first floor of our building at the doorway. The water was high enough that we realized we might have some trouble operating buses. We needed to get a couple of our really huge wrecker trucks so we could go and assess the damages at our other facilities. We were devastated at what we saw. We couldn't even reach the eastern New Orleans facility: I-10 was submerged, too much water even for these big trucks. They told us the water was at least eight feet deep. We had to turn back.

After we got back to the facility, by 9 p.m., we called a meeting. A lot of people were getting eager to leave and go home, and we announced to employees that there was quite a bit of water throughout the city, that they might have to stay there another day or so.

About 2 a.m. Tuesday [Aug. 30], one of the engineers came by and told us that we had to get out because the generators were no longer working; the water had risen past the contact point. We got together about 10 of the executive management group to examine the building, which now had at least four or five feet of water on the first floor. It occurred to us that the Canal Streetcar track area is higher than street level, and maybe we could get the big trucks up there to help us evacuate. We couldn't. The first truck drowned as soon as it got onto Canal Street, buried in water (continued...)

( continues...) probably up to the hood.

We reconvened at 9 a.m. We had been using the air mattresses for sleeping overnight on the third floor. My assistant general manager, Gerald Robichaux, suggested we use the air mattresses to begin evacuating people; by this time we had reports of the levees breaking, sea water levels reaching the windshield of buses. We got everyone on the roof of the building. Immediately a group of people got panicky, saying they couldn't swim, one had emphysema, another had a heart condition. I said, we're not going to force anyone to do anything. I'll stay back with those who can't go.

Our board chair got in touch with the mayor, who contacted the governor. It was hard getting a phone to work.

After awhile, we knew we had to go, couldn't wait any longer. We walked a group of about 150 people down to the first floor, where the air mattresses were floating on the water. The people would step from the stairway onto the air mattresses in groups of three to six people: the people who could not swim, children, the elderly. We had people with wheelchairs on the mattresses. Some employees-mostly guys but also some female police-walked with the mattresses to the front of the building to the streetcar area. A couple of employees were waiting in trucks on higher ground, near the Mississippi River. Once the folks on the mattresses got to the trucks, these employees would drive them through flooded routes and get them to the Crescent City Connection bridge and overpass, the only way out of the city that wasn't destroyed or under water.

The trucks took the evacuees to a transfer station where they met three or four MCI coaches, which began the process of transporting the employees and families to Baton Rouge. By nightfall, we had gotten 150 people out. The rest of us went back to the building-no power, no lights-and held tight overnight.

Next morning, Wednesday [Aug. 31], we got word that the brother of someone in the facility had a flatboat that was still operable but too far away to help us. If someone could swim and wade through the water, we could get the boat back. We thought we might be able to evacuate the rest of us at the facility that way, and indeed we did. We took about 15 people on the boat at a time, making several trips.

The people on the boat did face threats: people shooting, threatening to take the boat, people asking for help along the way.

Eventually, just 15 or 20 people were left sitting near the roof in the parking garage area, and they refused to leave for a number of reasons. They wanted to know what was going to happen when they got to Baton Rouge, etc. I told them the water was contaminated with diesel fuel, oil, sewage, that if anyone fell or got in the water it would burn the skin, and so forth. I let them know the Red Cross was waiting to help us; we were nearly out of water and didn't have power; that the weather was going to clear up and we'd probably have a heat index of 110 degrees before long; nobody could take showers or baths at the facility; we were down to one policeman and a small group of people. If they stayed, I told them, they could be overrun, and it could be dangerous. That got them out at nightfall. I was in the last boat; it was a nightmare.

We evacuated to the Broad Street overpass, near where police were trying to evacuate prisoners. Trucks were coming in through the water to pick us up, being directed by people standing with flashlights to keep the trucks from falling off the road. The trucks were operating in water levels up to the hood, so it was difficult for them to navigate. The trucks carried the people through blocks and blocks of water. Sometimes men had to get out and push through the black water and darkness, with only the flashlights and headlights to help us see. We were trying to be cautious, but we got through there.

The hardest part for me was that I had some heart medicine problems. I was taking blood thinners, and the doctor had told me to avoid trauma.

By this point, we couldn't get through to (continued...)

( continues...) Crescent City Connection. The state police had detained a couple of buses. We got to the Napoleon facility, where RTA repairs and shelters streetcars; the ground there was not flooded, and a backup generator was operating. We got there about 10 or 11 p.m., and waited until 2 a.m. for the buses to show up. We got to Baton Rouge by 5 a.m. Thursday [Sept. 1] and went straight to the central shelter, which was extremely crowded. We finally found a spot on the second floor, but conditions were difficult, and we began wondering how we were going to survive this. Later on Thursday we found another shelter, a church that was better, and we've been there ever since.

I have a brother in Alexandria, La., who was worried about my medicine and health, and he picked me up. I was able to get my medication. People who had friends or relatives to stay with were not required to stay at shelters. Several of our people were able to find their way out, going to Memphis; Lake Charles, La.; Alexandria, La.; Texas; all over the place.

The critical thing that hurt us in New Orleans was that we couldn't communicate, since the phones didn't work. We'd put everyone's cell phone together and wait for one to ring, then we'd try to use that one to call the mayor's office. Now that we were out, I started communicating, gave APTA my private e-mail address, etc.

I also gave my name to federal officials to help coordinate further evacuations. The Federal Railroad Administration called about bringing an Amtrak train to the Avondale shipyard in New Orleans, and the need for buses to transport people from the Superdome to the train. They could take 600 people immediately to Lafayette, La., pick up more people there, then travel on to Dallas. We were able to make that happen successfully. Dwight Brashear, chief executive officer of the Capital Area Transit System in Baton Rouge, was in charge of the bus part of the trip.

Back in New Orleans, we had put about 180 RTA buses on the wharf, which was the highest part of the city. When we went to retrieve them to continue evacuation efforts, we discovered that many had been vandalized. Later we saw one of our buses parked in a Wal-Mart lot; it had been broken into and used to evacuate people to Opelousas, La. No one reported it stolen, the person who took it used it to take people to a shelter, then left it in the parking lot. People commandeered the buses because they did what they had to do to get out of town. We had one of our mechanics go out to bring it back.

Because we couldn't communicate by phone and RTA employees were scattered about, our employees missed payday, and everybody was frantic. We knew the RTA administration building was underwater, but we got a helicopter, along with a rifleman for protection, went to the roof of the building, got inside through a hatch in the roof, and took out data files and a small server, enough to get a satellite office started in Baton Rouge. Now we're trying to spread the word that we're setting up a web page that includes a chat room for employees

Louisiana legislators gave us two trailers for our temporary RTA office, and Dwight Brashear (general manager in Baton Rouge) is sharing part of his office. We'll begin service immediately in New Orleans where there are dry roads, providing transportation for police, fire, emergency personnel. I think we can take people back and forth

We're also going to meet later this week with officials from Baton Rouge and Jefferson and Orleans parishes [counties]. The population of the city of Baton Rouge has doubled with all the evacuees, supplies are low, and transportation is difficult. RTA has resources, and can't use them all in the city. We want to offer our services

Regarding the streetcars: the Canal Streetcars are submerged up to the bottom of their windows, with the trucks completely underwater. We're trying to get hold of our streetcar experts to see if we'll be able to use any of them, and when. That depends on power, and what kind of damage we have. Right now it's (continued...)

( continues...) difficult because the tainted water is still pretty much everywhere, though it's receding now. The St. Charles streetcars are stored at the Napoleon facility, so we're not sure how much water damage they suffered.

Excellent letters both, Steph and Laura.

No new TV for me yet. I'd meant to catch Supernatural. I'll try for one of the re-airings, which I didn't know about, but yay.

I watched Supernatural. (Dude, I ended up watching all four shows--er, GG, House, Bones and Supernatural--last night. There is no end in my devotion to my vocation as a couch-potato.) It was very silly, but kind of fun, and the boys were very pretty if bland. I had better time watching it than the first half hour of Bones, which I frankly thought was godawful.

Also, Kate, aren't you now in school again? They often offer student health insurance, which might be worth looking into.

You know, I hadn't even thought of that. Do you mean that I could get health insurance through the school, or that COBRA or another agency would offer a discounted rate for students?

Why do I have to write up meeting minutes on the day that a lot of handouts (which aren't online) were passed about? I'm very tempted to simply type the header and "see the handout that is probably in that pile of stuff you aren't reading on the corner of your desk."

Of course, the one item that didn't have a handout also happens to be the one I understood the least, so my notes are kinda failing me here.

I watched Bones and House, RS:INXS and Rescue Me last night and then watched my tape of GG this morning.

I thought that the Paris lines quoted above were great -- she totally gets the best lines.

I believe that Rory is already regretting her decision. Ha. She is such an idiot.

Bones was just okay. . . NOT better than GG and I cannot believe that they pulled out the "Hallelujah" cliche already!!