Sounds like she's got a good grasp of the larger picture and her place in it.

A friend of mine who writes a medical blog has some NO related dispatches this week. Some of it makes for interesting reading...

http://blogborygmi.blogspot.com/


Also, my relatives from Gulfport finally checked in. They returned to their home to find that their roof no longer exists. But, everyone is accounted for, so my family is very relieved...

Kathy and I are about to drive over to check out our new temporary apartment in Shreveport (it's only about 10-15 miles from our hotel in Bossier City I think.)

Also, we just found out that the hotel rooms for tonight and the next 2 weeks are free courtesy of the red cross. This will saves us significant money as the in-laws apartment won't be ready for another week and the one apartment would be difficult to live in with 5 adults and 4 pets (that don't get along well.)

Another little status update:

The new apartment is smaller than we are used to, but this shouldn't be a problem since we don't have most of our stuff. It is a very nice apartment despite being small, and we saw the type of furniture that will be in it tomorrow (by looking at a model.) Overall, I'm very pleased considering we made the deal over the phone without ever looking at it. The neighborhood (it is a gated community) seems very nice.

Unless, I bring my laptop back to my mother-in-law's hotel room, I likely won't have internet access for at least a few days so that might be why I won't check in for a while. The new apartment doesn't come with internet and it is all a matter of how fast we can get either Cable modem or DSL hooked up.

Nice to hear the Red Cross giving free rooms. I hope this isn't hurting your financial situation, as well as your large house savings.

I can't complain. This will put a dent in our savings that might delay our house purchasing a month or two (plus of course we might have lost some of our property back home) but we are very fortunate.

I agree that it is nice to see the Red Cross doing this.

I just called a few places and it looks like I won't have internet access until at least Monday after we leave the hotel at noon tomorrow (unless I hang out with my computer in my mother-in-law's hotel room some over the weekend.)

This from a local internet forum. Arabi is in St. Bernard Parish just outside New Orleans. St. Bernard Parish is basically submerged. They have announced for example that there will be no school this year in St. Bernard Parish. They have told teachers to seek jobs elsewhere and parents to get their kids in school elsewhere. There may be hundreds or a thousand (parish president's estimate) dead in St. Bernard. I don't think this is a political comment: And yet the media has virtually ignored the plight of the good people there.

When all is said and done, there will be thousands of stories like this of my pt. from Arabi....

I got the whole story today from her son. She's a 79 year old woman, who along with her 2 sisters road out Katrina. Her only son who works on a cruise boat in Hawaii, called her before Katrina hit and told her to get out. Instead, she chose to ride out the storm in his cousin's "brick" home. Her son is now in BR and living in our ICU waiting room to be near his Mother. The story he told me today of his mother's escape from Katrina and how she came to my hospital, brought me to tears and still does.
When the levee broke, the water rose so fast the cousin's boat got trapped under the carport. The 3 sisters got out of the house, had life vest on and clung to a tree until the cousin could get the boat out. During this time, one of the sisters could no longer hold onto the tree and floated into the swamp behind the house.

Cousin got in his boat and tried to save the sister, but when he got there she had a water moccasins in her life vest and she was dead. He rescued her body and tied her to the roof of the house. The son, said his cousin told him, her eyes were opened and she was not breathing... she must have been dead.

Cousin then got the other two sisters into the boat and they were turned away at two shelters so he left them on the Court House steps. They stayed there in the sun with no water or food, until they were rescued Wednesday. After he put the two sister on the steps, he went back for the third dead sister and her body was gone.

The two sisters were airmeded to the PMAC (LSU, Pete Maravich Assembly Center). One of my fellow nurses took care of her that night at the PMAC before she was transfered to our unit.

That week I worked Sun-Wed and helped transfer her from the strecher to the bed. She had these huge water blisters on her arms and legs. It was then, I knew, I had to go and volunteer Thursday and Friday at the PMAC on my days off.

My patient's living sister is alive and doing well, living in Florida with nephew.

Today one of her wound cultures came back possible Vibrio.

God bless theirs souls.

What is "Vibrio"?

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/disea...lnificus_g.htm

Quick update:

No internet at my new place until Tuesday. At a Barnes and Noble right now about 10 miles from the apartment. There is a good chance I'll be going to serve in a make shift city area in about a week. Probably won't have internet during that time. I'll probably be working for a week, then off for a week. Repeat cycle until the city re-opens.

Dola -

Also, I'm really liking the new apartment which is very nice. Also, Shreveport and Bossier City are both great cities and I find myself starting to wish to move here permeantly which I feel guilty about. In any case, everyone is being very gracious to us and the cities both seem quite vibrant.

I'm not sure if I posted this already -- forgive me if I have -- but I have a little more good news. My mother and sister recovered everything from their home, and they are now just outside Lafayette, Louisiana. They are renting a house there for a few months, and my sister is going to try to do her final semester at UNO through electronic courses that the university plans to offer starting next month.

Unless I hear any news about my aunt and cousin, I think I'm essentially done with FOFC for a while. This thread is a sanctuary for me and I'll continue to check it, but a lot of other discussions here are simply driving me to anger right now, and that's not an easy feat. I would never suggest to squelch anything that anybody has to say here, so I'm taking the obvious step and just getting myself away.

Good luck to all of you.

A month or two of savings "lost" doesn't sound bad. Aren't Shreveport/Boosier City very close to Dallas/Fort Worth?

It is about five hours due west. It is a straight shot though.

Wow, that's great about your mother and sister. About your aunt and cousin, I'll be keeping them in my thoughts. We'll miss you, Pumpy, but I certainly understand your need to get away for awhile. :(

/tk

Pumpy, I understand that need as well. I'll be keeping your aunt and cousin in my thoughts as well and I think that is great news about your mother and sister.

I'm just at Barnes and Nobles for essential internet update of info. I've applied through LSU for housing in the Baton Rouge area as my boss wants me to work in that general area. However, it looks like I will be moving to a trailer in an evacuee area at the beginning of October. In the meantime, my apartment is getting internet tomorrow and I'll catch up with other stuff here. However, starting on Saturday (or Monday at the latest) I'll be living the trailer away from Mrs. Eaglesfan for 10 days at a time while working and then hopefully be off for 10 days.

I will have to say the one upshot of all of this is that I've gotten to spend more quality time with my wife in one shot than I have in over 3 years and it is has been very good for our relationship despite the stresses from in-laws and the various other factors at play here.

Well, I'm not sure how long I'll be home to enjoy it, but my new apartment now has high speed internet access.

Some of the before-after pictures on wwltv.com are pretty cool.

Now, Mayor Nagin has announced that uptown residents (which is where I live) will be able to return to live sometime next week (he is doing a phased in re-population of the city.) This complicates my plans to go to work in a temporary city some, and also makes me wonder if I was stupid to get this apartment for a whole month (the month-to-month lease ends on October 8th.)

Stupid? Not at all. You made the best decision based on the best information you had at the time. And it's only a month's rent, at the end of the day, compared to everything else.

If you were to return, what would be the state of utilities? Would there be electricity? Would the water be safe to drink?

Hey, when you go back and if you get a chance, I'd LOVE to hear how my old house on Belfast faired.

Klingerware, the word is that by the time they will let us return next week, there will be electricity and water will be safe. However, I don't necessarily believe that the water will be safe (I don't want to get into the politics in this thread.) Therefore, we already had bottled water delivery service on a cooler and certainly will continue to use that. I'll also be sure to buy a LOT of bottled water here in Shreveport before we drive down just in case.

Sachmo, I'll be glad to look at the house when the chance occurs. I'll let you all know when (work is still going to be a major factor in the when) I go back and PM me the address at that time.


EDIT: I just read the article again. Water will be safe for flushing toilets only according to Nagin. Outside water will be needed for drinking and bathing.

I know. The bad part is that my in-laws are just moving into their apartment tomorrow, so we'll really have wasted some money there, but at least it is only going to be a month's wasted rent.

Thanks for the info. Good luck with whatever you decide to do...

Well, until you get in there and see what the actual state of play is in the city, the money's not wasted yet. You at least have a fallback if things aren't in as good a shape as you'd hoped.

My friend is a Marine and one of the guys working to get the City back up and running. Take it for what it is worth, but he says that it looks like the water issue is about as bad as it can get and it may be months before they are able to provide clean water again.

Well, Nagin just announced the specific schedule for the phase-in repopulation which is being done by location and zip code. Friday the 23rd is the earliest I can return home (assuming work cooperates.)

At least with the phased-in repopulation, traffic shouldn't be too terrible in theory.

My aunt and cousin are fine, and they're in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I believe that my entire family is now accounted for, and they're all OK.

That is excellent news Pumpy! :)

AWESOME!!!

Glad to hear things are getting back to normal for you, too, EF! :)

FWIW, my brother has decided to stay in Austin. He may go back and see the condition of his place (and stuff) but he's got an apartment with his gf in Austin and they've registered her son in school there, so they're planning on staying there...

/tk

Well, my status keeps changing almost daily it seems. It appears that I will be likely making an exploratory effort to survey my apartment in New Orleans on the 23rd, and hopefully moving back there soon after that if nothing changes too much and the place is livable.

After that, we are working on getting me set up with clinics in several temporary cities as well as possibly Baton Rouge and I'll likely be traveling 60-80 miles each way every day to go to work. That will be unpleasant, but doable for a few months. The good news is that pre-liminary reports from security where I live is that no significant damage was done to my apartment and no obvious signs of looting are present (i.e. no smashed in windows, etc.)

I finally got some details about my aunt and cousin. Their house got flooded all the way up to the second floor. They unsuccessfully attempted to break through the roof to get outside, but the water didn't get over their heads. A rescue boat came by, and they saw it and opened the window and screamed for help. The boat stopped and picked them up. They were brought to the convention center, and sometime later, they were fortunate enough to get on a bus to Arkansas.

Bet they have some tales to tell.
Glad to hear everyone is ok, Pumpy.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that everything is ok at your apartment. I assume that you'll take your time moving back to it...at least, as much time as the month-to-month on your current place lets you (i.e. so you don't lose money by moving out of there early)?

Your mention of your long commute sounds familiar to how mine was for my new job until I moved. I was commuting about 55 miles each way through Washington beltway traffic and it was a bit crazy. A little piece of advice (if you want it), get an iPod or other mp3 player and get either an FM transmitter or a cassette adapter or a line-in cord (depending on what you have in your car) and get some audio books on Audible (www.audible.com). Or, you can burn books from Audible to CD. I always forget about that option, since my CD burner doesn't work. Anyway, I found that listening to books on my way in made the commute much more bearable, though I admit I only get audio books of things I've read before, because listening to something completely new can be hard for me to focus on. Anyway, just my $0.02 on surviving a long commute.

Audible: http://www.audible.com (tell them I sent you if you decide to use 'em, user name is kpilotte or real name is Kristin Pilotte).
My iPod setup for my commute (I use the iTrip on the iPod--it's an FM transmitter): http://www.flickr.com/photos/terpkristin/43880234/
Crappy traffic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/terpkristin/43880237/

Let us know when you find out the status of your apartment!!!

/tk

My work might want me back in 8 days in which case I'll probably move my stuff back next weekend. Kathy's work doesn't want her back quite as soon so her and her in-laws will probably enjoy the new temporary apartments for a few more days and move back via 2 trips (one with me and one without) assuming that her family's place is ok too.

Thanks for the advice. Normally, these commutes wouldn't be so bad (not fun going 80 miles but at least I'd be going about 70 mph a good part of the way, but with roads being closed it could be even worse than usual.) I might get the iPod, or I might finally get satelitte radio for my car. If I decide to go the ipod/Audible route, I'll definitely let them know you sent me. I also update about my apartment once I can.

EF, how long until your wife can return to work? How is her hotel?

The hotel had some roof damage. They expect her to return to work around mid October and they are paying her until she is able to return at that time. At least, that is the info from the last time she talked to her boss.

My niece went back to NO with her father to see how they faired. Here is her email about what she found. Feel free to browse the photo album...just brings the loss that much closer to home. My old house is about 3 blocks north of the picture of Palmer Park.

Looking at those pictures really does bring it alive. I've heard from a few friends, but hadn't seen any pics like these yet.

Those are great pictures. I was struck as to how dry everything looks now despite haven been under 3-4 of water.

Wow...I really hadn't thought as to how everyone's possessions were going to be straight up ruined. For some reason I was thinking that it would be a bitch of a clean-up job once folks were allowed back into their homes, but most of the stuff in that house is ruined. The living room furniture, the beds, the clothes in the dressers...all gonna have to be tossed. It would probably be easier to start over somewhere else. Are there any consequences for folks who do exactly that by abandoning their old homes?

I hope it's okay to post this here, I thought Eaglesfan might enjoy it, maybe some others too. I just thought it was a good story written pretty well. It's fairly long for wire copy, I'll post just enough here for background, to give anyone enough to see if they want to read the whole thing.
http://apnews.myway.com//article/200...D8CMUDPG8.html

HOUSTON (AP) - They're out there. The shooters, the choppers, the looters, the lines, the foul water and the bodies. Especially the bodies. "But we're in here," says Victor Fruge.

Others - hundreds of thousands of them - had also escaped from New Orleans. But few could match the extraordinary, even miraculous odyssey of Fruge and his comrades - 16 mentally ill men and recovering addicts, cast out of their group home, Abstract House, by the storm.

For a week the men stuck together through Hurricane Katrina and its rising waters, following a survival instinct like a candle in the dark and gamely caring for each other as they traveled unsupervised for nearly 500 miles. They arrived at dawn in Houston, a sprawling and unfamiliar city among the thousands of hurricane refugees who have made the exodus to Texas, but without a friend in sight.

Along the way they ate and slept in at least four different shelters and caught rides on four different means of transport, always clutching the psychotropic medications that keep their imaginary devils at arm's length while the real world around them sunk into a deeper hell.

That was an interesting read, and I think about some of the patients that I helped during my residency that were among the most mentally ill in the city, and I wonder what happened to them.

EF, you may want to hold off on relocating back to NO for the moment. Rita's scheduled to be in the western gulf in five days. Current forecasts seem to point to a Texas/Mexico landfall, but this far out, that's usually not going to be the most accurate forecast. I shudder to think what even a weak storm will do to the area in its current state.

Another aspect that some people are missing are people who had local employment--my friend's dad had built up a private psychiatry practice over the last 40 years. It's pretty much gone now because all of his paitents are gone. You get disability insurance and life insurance and malpractice insurance and property insurance for your office and the like to make sure that your family is covered in case of the "worst case" ever happening. But you can't insure for something like all of your paitents being forced to leave town and who knows if/when they are coming back.

(Note--don't weep for them. I'm not looking for sympathy. There are a lot of people who ended up a lot worse off. I am just thinking of the thousands of people who had jobs that were not with large corporations and whose job now just no longer exists--and there was really no way to have prepared for that.)

Kathy and I noticed this yesterday afternoon after my mother pointed it out. We'll be keeping a close eye on it, and it may affect our timeplan for returning. However, thanks for pointing this out just in case we hadn't heard about it.

I'm not asking anyone to weep for her either, but one of my best friends is in a similar predictament except she is in her early 30's and has just recently finished residency (less than 2 years ago.) She doesn't have huge savings built up, and she had just purchased a house. She was a private practice psychiatrist and now she is seriously considering selling her house and moving back to Ohio (her home state) because she is not sure when her clients will return to town, and she believes that many of them might not.

Just looked at the 11 AM advisory/forecast and the news is sliding downhill a bit more. Forecast track now takes the storm into the Houston/Galveston area in five days with winds around 115, a low Cat 3. Of significant import, however, is the fact that the margin of error cone now extends east to include New Orleans.

There will be another full advisory at 5 (4 CDT) that will update the forecast again. It should be noted that the forecasts for Katrina didn't have New Orleans pegged as a possible target until 54 hours before landfall, so naturally, continue to take such things with a little salt. At least this time the city's empty for the most part, so evacuations and traffic problems attendant to that will be nonexistent if it ever came to that.

I just saw this too. I'm worried that the track is moving north and east. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this over the next few days.