I’ve been particularly struck by the devastation in the largely forgotten areas surrounding New Orleans and St. Bernard in particular. I received an update on the health situation there yesterday in my e-mail
Rita is on the way and we are already feeling the effects here. ?
We have been ?notified that mutual aid teams, including USAR
groups currently operating in ?the New Orleans area, are being
evacuated toward our location. ?We have spent ?the day placing
additional beds in the shelter and restocking food and ?medicine.
?We have made the decision to reserve this shelter for displaced ?
Louisiana fire fighters and their families. ?We are pointing
other fire ?fighter groups to the LSU campus or to the Baton
Rouge Fire Department for ?assistance.The member support team working in Jefferson Parish and St.
Bernard returned ?last night after four days. ?It?s clear from
their report that the conditions ?in St. Bernard Parish continue
to be particularly grim. We are concerned about ?member?s health
and overall living conditions. We are working on several ?
strategies to improve the situation. ?Severe and possibly fatal
staphe ?infections were diagnosed yesterday afternoon among
several St. Bernard ?citizens. ?The clinic there was without
Vancomycin, the drug of choice for ?treatment. ?As we had the
medication here, we arranged to have it flown to New ?Orleans
last night by an Angel Flight team.The member support team working in Gautier, Slidell, Pascagoula
and Biloxi for ?the past three days is due back in a few hours. ?
We currently have an ?additional team enroute to Gautier and
Biloxi to deliver supplies. ?We also ?had supplies flown into
Gulfport and Biloxi on Monday, as well.Tomorrow is a crew change day with the Wisconsin, Boston, and
FDNY teams being ?replaced with ones from Los Angeles and
Massachusetts. ?Also assisting with ?operations are members from
Natchitoches, La; Knoxville, TN; Hoboken, NJ; ?Jacksonville, FL
and Cincinnati, OH.I want to especially mention the physician and SEIU volunteer
nurses who have ?made our medical operation such a success. Dr.
Howard Kravetz from Prescott, ?AZ, originally arrived in Baton
Rouge to serve in a volunteer capacity with ?the Red Cross. ?When
he was made aware of our need he came to the center and ?was
instrumental in setting up and running the clinic. ?He has done
an ?extraordinary job seeing patients, acquiring supplies and
taking care of all ?of the folks here. ?Cathy Stoddart, Marcie
Boyer, Van Thomas Lee, and Donna ?Skirbin are all members of SEIU
Local 1199P from Pennsylvania. They too, have ?done a wonderful
job taking care of hundreds of fire fighters, their families ?and
members of the community in need of health care. We are honored
to have ?all of them working with us.
I had two staph infections about three years ago–one of which was resistant to treatment ending up in me having an IV at home for antibiotics. The seriousness of these resistant strains cannot be made clear enough. While the news media has given some attention to St. Bernard, it still isn’t getting the attention due to New Orleans. Serious problems will continue in that area for months given the type of destruction they have faced.
Also, I know there is a lot of resistance to donating to the Red Cross so consider donating to the IAFF’s fund–many firefighters and related personnel are in the region and the money will go to good use.
Jamie Allman of 97.1 also had an interview with a resident of St. Bernards on Wednesday. You can listen in here