'The Day That Changed New Orleans Forever'

'The Day That Changed New Orleans Forever'

"'The Day That Changed New Orleans Forever'

Cataldo said flood waters reached a maximum of three feet after the storm passed.

'Our communications with the outside world were cut off at that point,' Cataldo said. 'We had 1,160 people in the hospital. We had about 160 patients. We had 550 support personnel and physicians, and the rest were family members of the patients and refugees.'

Each wing of the hospital had a hatch on the roof of the nine-story facility that blew off causing flooding from above as well as below, Cataldo said.

'The central supply, pharmacy, morgue and cafeteria, four things that we really needed in the storm were all in the basement,' Cataldo said. 'Luckily the hospital had sent the food to the fifth floor so we did have our food rations even though they were small.'

All of the windows in the ICU blew out, Cataldo said, forcing the staff to take all patients to a recovery unit. All of the windows of a crosswalk that goes to a clinic building were also blown out on the approaching side of the storm. The hurricane force winds that diverted to the clinic or the hospital 'sounded like a freight train,' Cataldo said, forcing them to bust the opposite side windows to give some freeway for the winds to go through."


73 fer nw,
Bob N5IET

(old calls KE5CTY - WB5ZQU - WY5L)
10X# 37210, FP#-1141, SMIRK#-5177
http://www.qsl.net/ke5cty/
Code may be taking a back seat for now,
but the pioneering spirit that put the code
there in the first place is out front of it all.