Lobbyists Played Role in Katrina Rescues

[NVMojo]

Two lobbying groups, chosen by Louisiana to collect emergency requests from hospitals and nursing homes during Hurricane Katrina, found themselves instead scrambling to arrange private rescues when government teams became preoccupied with plucking citizens off rooftops. The inability to quickly direct National Guard and other government rescue teams to health care facilities had deadly consequences.

Dozens of fragile patients died in sweltering heat and other taxing conditions that lasted for days.

A Catholic nun reported trying for four days to get rescuers to her nursing home, only to watch them pass by in the street. Another home administrator, trapped amid looting and chaos, carried a gun for the first time in his life just to protect patients.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051010/ap_on_re_us/katrina_rescue_delays

[merwin]

1. Why are lobbying groups collecting emergency requests?

[NVMojo]

2. merwin, that's what I wondered ....

[politicat]

3. Because they have the phone lines and the staff to run them.

Same reason we use travel agencies and the like for phone-banking during the election season.

[Supersedeas]

4. Brownie was doing a heck of a job!!

[daleo]

5. A couple interesting, possibly related facts.

"More than 215 bodies were recovered from hospitals and nursing homes in Katrina's aftermath, according to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals."

"At the region's 13 major hospitals and several smaller facilities, rescuers ultimately evacuated 2,170 patients and more than 9,000 staff and family members by the end of the first week after Katrina."

So, 215/2170 gives a 10% fatality rate for hospitals and nursing homes. I can't tell whether nursing homes are included in the denominator for sure, from the quote, though.

[mom cat]

6. Military fails again in disaster relief...Important story of NG failure.