Hurricane Gustav shelters

[mela681]

Not sure if this is the right place, but I just received this e-mail from a coworker.

I have removed all names from this e-mail.


Thought ya’ll might find this interesting…


This was just sent to me by a good friend. The original had the nurses name on it but I took it off since I am sending it to others. I just don’t want to be responsible for passing around something with someone’s name attached. I am sure this email will be circulated and it should….

I got this from my sister-in-law who is a nurse at LSU Med Center.

Hey folks this is just one copy of this letter that a colleague of mine sent to the national media. Let me just say that this lady travels the world doing medical missions and found Old Sams in S'port scarrier than the 3rd world countries she has visited. Just thought you might like 2hear what things were really like and this letter don't even begin 2 cover it

Hello Mr. O'Reilly,
I am a nurse who has just completed working approximately 120 hours as the clinic director in a Hurricane Gustav evacuation shelter in Shreveport, Louisiana over the last 7 days. I would love to see someone look at the evacuee situation from a new perspective. Local and national news channels have covered the evacuation and "horrible" conditions the evacuees had to endure during Hurricane Gustav.

True - some things were not optimal for the evacuation and the shelters need some modification. At any point, does anyone address the responsibility (or irresponsibility) of the evacuees?
Does it seem wrong that one would remember their cell phone, charger, cigarettes, and lighter but forget their child's insulin?
Is something amiss when an evacuee gets off the bus, walks immediately to the medical area, and requests immediate free refills on all medicines for which they cannot provide a prescription or current bottle (most of which are narcotics)?
Isn't the system flawed when an evacuee says they cannot afford a $3 copay for a refill that will be delivered to them in the shelter yet they can take a city-provided bus to Wal-mart, buy 5 bottles of Vodka, and return to consume them secretly in the shelter?
Is it fair to stop performing luggage checks on incoming evacuees so as not to delay the registration process but endanger the volunteer staff and other persons with the very realistic truth of drugs, alcohol and weapons being brought into the shelter?
Am I less than compassionate when it frustrates me to scrub emesis from the floor near a nauseated child while his mother lies nearby, watching me work 26 hours straight, not even raising her head from the pillow to comfort her own son?
Why does it insense me to hear a man say "I ain't goin' home 'til I get my FEMA check" when I would love to just go home and see my daughters who I have only seen 3 times this week?
Is the system flawed when the privately insured patient must find a way to get to the pharmacy, fill his prescription and pay his copay while the FEMA declaration allows the uninsured person to acquire free medications under the disaster rules?
Does it seem odd that the nurse volunteering at the shelter is paying for childcare while the evacuee sits on a cot during the day as the shelter provides a "day care"?
Have government entitlements created this mentality and am I facilitating it with my work?
Will I be a bad person, merciless nurse or poor Christian if I hesitate to work at the next shelter because I have worked for 7 days being called every curse word imaginable, felt threatened and feared for my personal safety in the shelter?

Exhausted and battered but hopefully pithy,
_________________________, RN
>

[Chloe]

Does it seem odd that the nurse volunteering at the shelter is paying for childcare while the evacuee sits on a cot during the day as the shelter provides a "day care"?

Why doesn't the nurse simply bring her own children into the shelter's "day care"? After all, it may be full of drugs, alcohol, weapons, and cursing, but they're getting it for free, the lucky bastards!

[Simply Madeline]

I don't know why people with drug and alcohol problems think they are entitled to be evacuated, anyway. We should just leave them to the elements!

[Dr. Dave]

This looks a lot like a "rant" seen after Katrina about how the evacuees were living in the lap of luxury, so this might be an old forward that had a new hurricaine attached. There is certainly precedent for such thing.

As for the listed complaints, I actually would not be surprised if the first few dealing with needing/ claiming to need new meds are true in the sense that a few people acted that way. I base this on having seen similar things at hospitals. That said, I would also not be surprised if the majority of people who say they lost or forgot their meds, you know, lost or forgot them. Furthermore, I would be surprised if it was more than a few people out of hundreds or thousands trying to seriously "game the system," as these things always seem to be built out of whole cloth, exagerated, or at best based on one or two instanses which then becomes "all those people are trying to..."

As for the nurse, I am sure she is tired and frustrated, but expressing disdain for her patients and not even attempting to understand the curcumstances that may lead to them being less than ideal, as well as writing to Bill O'Reilly about it: I think she might want another line of work. [ETA: The writingto Bill O'Reilly I mention because ranting amongst colleagues is one thing, this quite another.]

[lyra_silvertongue]

Originally Posted by Dr. Dave

As for the nurse, I am sure she is tired and frustrated, but expressing disdain for her patients and not even attempting to understand the curcumstances that may lead to them being less than ideal, as well as writing to Bill O'Reilly about it: I think she might want another line of work. [ETA: The writingto Bill O'Reilly I mention because ranting amongst colleagues is one thing, this quite another.]

Unfortunately the "not even attempting" attitude is all too common, especially with the kind of people that are really into Bill O'Reilly.

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Simply Madeline

I don't know why people with drug and alcohol problems think they are entitled to be evacuated, anyway. We should just leave them to the elements!

Your compassion knows no bounds does it? Let the NFBSKers die I say, and pile their corpses up as temporary levees.

[mela681]

Originally Posted by Chloe

Why doesn't the nurse simply bring her own children into the shelter's "day care"? After all, it may be full of drugs, alcohol, weapons, and cursing, but they're getting it for free, the lucky bastards!

I was thinking the exact same thing, but maybe her kids are too good to be around the "refugees"

[Simply Madeline]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Your compassion knows no bounds does it? Let the NFBSKers die I say, and pile their corpses up as temporary levees.

Um, I was being sarcastic. As, I assume, were you.

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Simply Madeline

Um, I was being sarcastic. As, I assume, were you.

Okay, sorry, my sarcasm-ometer must need re-calibrating today. Apologies.

Yes I was being sarcastic.

[Simply Madeline]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Okay, sorry, my sarcasm-ometer must need re-calibrating today. Apologies.

Yes I was being sarcastic.

No, I apologize for being snippy.

I thought my response was so over-the-top callous that it would be obvious I as being sarcastic. I merely have to head over to the school vouchers thread to see that that is not the case. Which makes me sad.

[A Cat Named Easter]

Isn't the system flawed when an evacuee says they cannot afford a $3 copay for a refill that will be delivered to them in the shelter yet they can take a city-provided bus to Wal-mart, buy 5 bottles of Vodka, and return to consume them secretly in the shelter?

They couldn't have been doing it too secretly if you know about it, now could they? As hard as you were working, you sure seem to know an awful lot about how they got it, how much they got, and what they did with it!

By the way, I thought it was amazing that I could by vodka at the Wal-mart on Kauai. I guess you can do the same in "S,port".

[Gayle]

There is a really strong anti-evacuee feeling in many parts of Texas after Katrina. I won't be surprised if we don't start hearing a lot more of this with Ike blowing in this weekend.

[putitinwriting]

I swear I saw this exact same rant - different storm details, of course - after Katrina. I'm going to google.

[firefighter_raven]

Originally Posted by A Cat Named Easter

They couldn't have been doing it too secretly if you know about it, now could they? As hard as you were working, you sure seem to know an awful lot about how they got it, how much they got, and what they did with it!

By the way, I thought it was amazing that I could by vodka at the Wal-mart on Kauai. I guess you can do the same in "S,port".

actually at one of them you could not to mention the other stores in the area...
I found that out while working in one of the shelters in Shreveport for Gustav and Ike.
It was amazing some of the things we found in the mess left in the shelter after out first guests left...
Let's just say it was an eye opening experience...

[A Cat Named Easter]

Originally Posted by firefighter_raven

actually at one of them you could not to mention the other stores in the area...
I found that out while working in one of the shelters in Shreveport for Gustav and Ike.
It was amazing some of the things we found in the mess left in the shelter after out first guests left...
Let's just say it was an eye opening experience...

Could you be more specific? I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to say here.

[firefighter_raven]

Originally Posted by A Cat Named Easter

Could you be more specific? I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to say here.

I forget which one but one of the Walmarts did sell liquor... which was surprising to me since both states I lived in Liquor was always sold in separate stores... course La. has drive up daiquiri stores...

In a facility that was no alcohol and no weapons after the first group left when cleaning up the extreme amount of trash we found several bottles of various alcohol, partial 6 pack some still full and even one of those big jugs of cheap wine... you know the one the size of a basketball... "afraid to ask how that was smuggled in"
the corner gas station next to us was pretty much empty of alcohol of any type during the first groups stay
we found soiled baby diapers just thrown anywhere, surprises in the blankets left for us... due to the different things found on most of the blankets I believe they were set aside to be destroyed since no one would clean them cheaply...

we had 3 different groups in the shelter I was stationed and the first group was the biggest and most problematic... and the most racist, rude and ungrateful of them

long and short of it.. from my experience while the letter might not be 100% true... it didn't surprise me from the things I saw and had relayed to me by coworkers at my camp and the other one