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DJP Update 9-1-2005 More on Hurricane Katrina and Louisiana agency contact problems
Thanks to all of you who responded to urgent request for help from Louisiana State government Dept of Health and Hospitals that I emailed to you yesterday. The phone contact number and email at Louisiana State government Health and Hospitals must be enhanced. I have multiple reports from those who responded to my emails that they cannot get though to the agency by phone or email. Many of you from all over our great Nation want to come to New Orleans and the triage centers in the state to assist. This is a wonderful tribute to the nobility of our profession. Thank you!
This feedback from you about the inability to reach the state officials is of great importance. I contacted the executive director of the Louisiana 'State Medical Society, Dave Tarver, and informed him of this. He appreciated this information. I recommended that a letter be hand delivered to Dr. Fred Cerise, head of Louisiana's Dept of Health and Hospitals, informing him of this difficulty so the system can be enhanced. Mr. Tarver will be a great leader assisting our physician leadership of LSMS. LSMS has been working with Health and Hospitals and coordinating efforts. Meanwhile, Mr. Tarver says that the message back to each of you is to contact your local state emergency management services or "OEP" (Office of Emergency Preparations) as the state agencies throughout the Nation are working together on this disaster. Meanwhile, I will try to continue to be a conduit of accurate information from the leadership in Louis! iana. Mr. Tarver of the Louisiana State Medical Society is no stranger to crisis. He served in our armed forces in Vietnam in 1967-68 as the company commander for the 24th Evacuation Hospital. He was at Long Binh, north of Saigon and became Hospital Adjuvant coordinating support activities. The hospital was designated a 3rd Core Hospital for all spine, neuro and major orthopedics as well as the burn center. Suffice it to say, we have a proven leader from a combat zone of yesteryear assisting our Louisiana physicians. The right man for the crisis at hand.
Check out the "Emergency
News" section of web site of Louisiana State Department of Health and
Hospitals
Also, monitor this page on
their site:
It says in part:
(DJP note: I just tried it and it is busy. This problem discussed in first part of this email)
Here is Louisiana State
Medical Society web site:
Also, be sure to visit AMA
web:
and check out the area
devoted to Hurricane Katrina:
I will try to respond to
each of you who wrote but it may take a little time to do that.
Meanwhile I hope this information will be helpful.
A crisis of this magnitude will put the spotlight on poor systems and any inept leadership. Opportunity abounds for critical analysis, courage, and effective action. Heros are emerging.
In my opinion, it is critical for officials to show they are in control and order is restored. Accurate information, in a timely fashion, must be given to the public frequently.
More info to you later about the many stories.
Authorities will have to resolve armed gangs who loot and endanger the lives of innocents.. Otherwise, Mad Max scenario. Volunteers saving others must not be put at risk by criminal opportunists.
You can be of tremendous help by continuing to spread the word on volunteers and donations. I will continue to communicate with LSMS and sharing thoughts with AMA on other coordinated relief efforts. You will be kept up to date to the best of my ability. Looks like I will soon be on the move but as long as I have power to charge the notebook computer containing a broadband wireless data card (not Wi-Fi) as well as the BlackBerry, the messages will continue.
Communication by phone is getting worse in the critical zones. Essentially non existent. Email with portables and BlackBerry works almost always.
I no longer can reach my brother Leonard by phone. Circuits always busy. As I mentioned yesterday, he did not evacuate. At last contact, he had no power and no way to charge notebook computer. Still has his shortwave and a car battery but I do not have access to shortwave as of this time.
I also note that I cannot
get to my Intrepid Resources risk management and patient safety web site
and update links to discuss Katrina crisis.
The server is located in New Orleans. Web site won't load and I have lost contact with the webmaster.
Lesson for future. One must have a mirror site in different town in event of crisis and one server knocked out.
He further states that he met ID physicians attending a conference at the hotel. Together, they "have commandeered the world famous French Quarter Bar to turn into a makesfift clinic.." He later continues "Our biggest adventure today was raiding the Walgreens on Canal under police escort. The pharmacy was dark and full of water. We basically scooped the entire drug sets into garbage bags and removed them. All under police escort. The looters had to be held back at gun point."
HEALTH EDITION
The inundation of New Orleans is rapidly becoming a public-health emergency. As the extraction of thousands of victims from the city continues, public-health officials are racing to treat those who are sick and injured and bracing for potential outbreaks of disease.
Hurricane Katrina: The
good, the bad, the let's-shoot-them-now.
Here is an excerpt:
......etc. including a discussion of leadership in crisis.\
(She then continues)
Looters are not looking to survive; they're looking to take advantage of the weakness of others. They are predators. They're taking not what they need but what they want. They are breaking into stores in New Orleans and elsewhere and stealing flat screen TVs and jewelry, guns and CD players. They are breaking into homes and taking what those who have fled trustingly left behind. In Biloxi, Miss., looters went from shop to shop. "People are just casually walking in and filling up garbage bags and walking off like they're Santa Claus," the owner of a Super 8 Motel told the London Times. On CNN, producer Kim Siegel reported in the middle of the afternoon from Canal Street in New Orleans that looters were taking "everything they can."
If this part of the story grows--if cities on the gulf come to seem like some combination of Dodge and the Barbarian invasion--it's going to be bad for our country. One of the things that keeps us together, and that lets this great lumbering nation move forward each day, is the sense that we will be decent and brave in times of crisis, that the fabric holds, that under duress it is American heroism and altruism that take hold and not base instincts born of irresponsibility, immaturity and greed.
------- Stay well, my friends,
Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD
*****(do not use DJP@intrepidresources.com until further notice. Server out in New Orleans and back up generator out of fuel. Because of disorder in streets, fuel can't get in. THIS IS PROBLEM WITH MOST SERVERS IN NEW ORLEANS. ALSO, ANY EMAIL YOU SENT SINCE LAST NIGHT TO MY INTREPID ADDRESS DID NOT GET TO ME AND MAY NEVER GET TO ME. PLEASE RESEND VIA MY AMA EMAIL ADDRESS. Also, I am using my old megalist so some of you won't ever see this unless it is shared with you. Sorry, but I will have to reconstruct. Please share this email with those you think will benefit. Thanks!)
www.intrepidresources.com
also not functioning for same reason
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