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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 Louisiana. 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
http://www.dhh.louisiana.gov/offices/?ID=145
Also, monitor this page on their site:
http://www.dhh.louisiana.gov/offices/faq.asp?ID=145#Faq-913
It says in part:
Q: I am a doctor/nurse/medical professional who wants to offer my services
in the Hurricane Katrina Recovery Effort. What can I do?
A: The Department of Health and Hospitals has established a number to
coordinate medical professionals' help in the recovery effort. Please
call (225) 763-5740.
(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:
http://www.lsms.org/
Also, be sure to visit AMA web:
www.ama-assn.org
and check out the area devoted to Hurricane Katrina:
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/15474.html
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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.
I especially appreciate your words of comfort and support.
Meanwhile, lots of continuing bad news in New Orleans, surrounding areas,
and Gulf Coast, but also heroic stories emerging.
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.
www.intrepidresources.com
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.
I won't pass on the many stories now. You can follow some of these on radio
and TV but here is a brief excerpt from a letter that Dr. Mike
Ellis shared with me by email Mike got a note from a doctor who is a
temporary resident in Ritz-Carlton hotel in New Orleans. This other
doctor said: " I figured if it was my time to go, I wanted to go in a place
with a good wine list....
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."
RECOMMENDED READING OF TODAY:
HEALTH EDITION
from The Wall Street Journal.
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 aresick and
injured and bracing for potential outbreaks of disease.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112554413718428804,00.html?mod=djemHL
Also in Wall Street Journal online in OpinionJournal
Don't miss this article by Peggy Noonan
Peggy Noonan
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110007187
Hurricane Katrina: The good, the bad, the let's-shoot-them-now.
12:01 a.m. EDT
Here is an excerpt:
Katrina is a huge and historic story. The human cost, the financial cost,
the rendering uninhabitable of a great and fabled American
city--all of it amazing. A quick look at the good, the bad, and the
let's-shoot-them-now.
......etc. including a discussion of leadership in crisis.\
(She then continues)
As for the tragic piggism that is taking place on the streets of New
Orleans, it is not unbelievable but it is unforgivable, and I hope the
looters are shot. A hurricane cannot rob a great city of its spirit, but a
vicious citizenry can. A bad time with Mother Nature can leave you
digging out for a long time, but a bad turn in human behavior frays and
tears all the ties that truly bind human being--trust, confidence,
mutual regard, belief in the essential goodness of one's fellow citizens.
There seems to be some confusion in terms of terminology on TV. People with
no food and water who are walking into supermarkets and taking food and
water off the shelves are not criminal, they are sane. They are not looters,
they are people who are attempting to survive; they are taking the basics of
survival off shelves in stores where there isn't even anyone at the cash
register.
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.
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Stay well, my friends,
Donald
Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD
Donald.Palmisano@ama-assn.org
*****(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
504-455-5895 Office
312-560-0180 Cell
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