Posted on 09/10/2005 10:07:46 PM PDT by Mount Athos
Less than 24 hours before Hurricane Katrina began ravaging St. Bernard Parish with 140 mph winds and a 20-foot storm surge, Coroner Bryan Bertucci made an urgent call to the owner of St. Rita's Nursing Home near Poydras.
"I told her I had two buses and two drivers who could evacuate all 70 of her residents and take them anywhere she wanted to go," he said.
But Mabel Mangano refused the offer. "She told me, 'I have five nurses and a generator, and we're going to stay here,'" Bertucci said.
It turned out to be a tragic decision.
On Wednesday, nine days after the storm had passed, Bertucci watched as a dozen workers from a federal agency that specializes in handling mass casualties began the gruesome task of removing about 30 decomposing bodies from the still-flooded nursing home.
On Thursday, Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. announced he's launching an investigation into the deaths at the nursing home. "I want answers. I want to know why those people were trapped and were not evacuated," Foti said. The storm pounded through the parish's levees, unleashing raging floodwaters that knocked able-bodied men off their feet. At the single-story, privately-owned nursing home, residents confined to their beds or wheelchairs were quickly overwhelmed by the rapidly rising water, Bertucci said.
As the storm raged, neighbors and firefighters in boats rescued about 40 nurses and residents, carrying some -out on their mattresses. But rescuers could not save everyone. The body of an elderly woman wearing a housedress was found on a concrete patio near the front door. An elderly man's body was slumped over the back of a chair, a recovery worker said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
oops i screwed up, title parens should say OWNER refused help, not coroner!
Dang. You're too fast for me.
Stupid, stupid people. It's one thing for the owner not to want to leave...that's her choice...but to make that choice for the people who live there is unfathomable.
hey could you fix title parens for me, should say "owner refused help" not "coroner refused help".
Sorry for mistake in posting.
My guess: nursing home owner decided that per-diem fees would stop if they were evacuated, and they had a generator, so ...
wall of water wins.
Wow - nursing home admin is culpable here and disgusting...sounds like involuntary manslaughter. She should be thrown in jail pronto...
Maybe the coroner was a co-owner.
Wall of water always wins.
.
Once we start punishing poor decisions, we'll run out of wardens.
Ask yourself this...if you had the buses...where would you go with 100-odd old geezers? This is a situation where a state-mandated plan should have existed for every hospital and every old-folks home. The interesting thing here is that in Florida...most old-folks homes evac to the local shelter...they don't drive clear across the region.
I can see a massive lawsuit on this case...the place will be out of business and face millions in court. Again, that pure Louisiana attitude about not running or getting away. What else can you say?
Stupid, stupid rat creatures!
That's more like it.
I think she died too
That ought not make them criminal.
Poor decisions are one thing, poor decisions that kill 30 people are another.
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