Kudos In rereading what I’ve written so far, I forgot to mention a couple of organizations that deserve kudos, namely the Red Cross, Salvation Army and a number of Medical Group Volunteers from Illinois & Tennessee. Due to laws enacted at the request of insurance groups that lobby the hell out of congress (lots of campaign contributions), these volunteers were not covered by their malpractice insurance if they practiced outside of the state that they were licensed to practice in. Most of them did anyway. I got a tetanus shot from a Dr. from Memphis and false teeth supplies from a Dr. from Oregon. No one programmed our great Mississippi Governor on his options in an emergency, so it took him over 12 hours to kick into gear some vital services that could have been brought to bear quicker. The General in charge of the Miss National Guard did not wait for our Governor to issue orders, he just went ahead, mobilized and moved out before Haley knew what was happening. MEMA is tremendously well organized. It is filled with retired Colonels, Generals and Master Sargeants who know how to organize and get things moving in an emergency. They were the ones that by hook and by crook set up emergency evacuation centers in parking lots, staffed them and kept things orderly. We are all watching to see what will happen in Louisiana once those folks are allowed once again to go home. To continue reading AK's Katrina account, click Status here, or in the frame on the left. |