Louis Maistros in the Times Picayune
Dear readers, Louis Maistros is one of our newest generation of HumidCIty contributors. I am proud to point out that a re-worked version of a post that came up here and his own blog has now been put up as a guest colum on NOLA.com [read it here]
Go give it a read, I’m sure he would rather see intelligent comments than the tripe that usually appears in NOLA.com’s foolishly unmoderated stream…
Loki, HumidCity Founder
October 10th, 2008 at 8:22 am
I saw no place to comment there, so I’ll leave my remarks here, where I know Louis can find them…
Thank you for addressing an issue that has been too long on a back burner during the frenzy of Evacuation. In fact, treatment of the elderly is often on the back burner in life, in the work place, in health care.
While I, too, wish to avoid pointing fingers, it seems painfully obvious to me that, especailly after the nursing home deaths during the Katrina Evacuation, the city would prepare buses, at the very least, with some sort of basic medical monitoring system, and certainly air conditioning, refridgerated fluids for hydration, and an arrangement to secure gurneys for a road trip.
When I watch those Death Star looking computerized vans that roam the streets looking for cars in violation, or the quarter million dollar pot-hole filler, never mind the millions wasted on a no-bid crime camera system that doesn’t work, I find it impossible to accept that the City Of New Orleans;
1) Didn’t know there might be another hurricane and therefore another evacuation.
2) Forgot all about Charles Foti’s windmill chase and witch hunt of Docter Pau.
3) The dozens of elderly who died from heat exhaustion, exposure and the sheer phyisical & emotional trauma
of being evacuated in such a cattle like manner.
As limited as our resources are, a couple of greyhound buses, refitted to accomadate the above issues, should be on stand by every hurricane season. If the City runs short, maybe the money could even come from those millionaire real estate developers so fond of giving the Mayor vacations and awards…
October 11th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Thanks for mentioning this, Loki. I moved this one to paper because I thought it was an important topic that isn’t being talked about enough, and I figured someone at the governor’s office, or city hall, would be more likely to read it if it was in the TP.
You know how I love to finger point, but I’m not doing that this time because I know the blame game has a tendency to shutdown dialogues, and I’d really rather open one here.
One thing for sure, as LD points out, there certainly are many ways this important issue can be addressed — all it will take is some political will.