Nietzsche Triage

Diogenes links to this frightening story from NOLA View weblog. Sit down for this one. Try not to get sick at the keyboard. Or throw it out the window in foaming rage.

Doctors, patients and staff are stranded at Baptist Hospital (extended campus of Memorial Hospital). My brother, Dr. Bryant King, is stranded there and has been sending occassional text messages to let us know the situation.

Yesterday, he explained that management at the hospital decided to selctivley withold food and water from patients. Doctors are being forced to decide who gets to live and who will starve to death. The hospital is surrounded by 8ft of flood water; There is no more electricity, food or water. Windows are broken out and people are starving.

I have not wanted to critize elected officials too harshly. Monday morning quarterbacking has no place while survivors still require assistance. Besides, with 80% of NO flooded and mob psychology introducing mass seduction to sin, few sane commentors would condemn these besieged leaders from being overwhelmed. However, this situation is outrageous!

How can NO's hospitals remain unevacuated? How can doctors and hospital administrators be placed in this impossible position? For God's sake, do they have to loot grocery stores themselves? I'm seething! There's no excuse for leaving hospitals abandoned. Do what it takes to secure the areas nearby so that evacuations take place. If the Federal government or the State of Louisiana have to mobilize 10,000 National Guardsmen, then do it! Do whatever it takes! Get those people out of there!

It's incomprehensible to me. We provided extraordinary aid to the victims of Souteast Asia's deadly Tsunami. We're the mightiest nation on the planet. We can't get doctors and patients out of flooded hospitals? I'm so livid!

Somebody step up and lead! NOW!

Update: Looks like they FINALLY evacuated Baptist Hospital, thank God. However, local officials have few kind words for Federal authorities like FEMA so far:

Terry Ebbert, head of the city's emergency operations, contrasted what he deemed a lackluster response by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the massive outpouring of humanitarian and military aid after this past winter's tsunami in southeast Asia.

Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard called the lack of federal response "a disgrace."

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was equally blunt. Federal and state officials need to stop having "goddamn press conferences" and get the relief effort rolling, he said in a late-afternoon radio interview, an angry flare-up out of character for the popular, generally easy-going former cable TV executive.

Appearing in a New York studio on NBC's "Today" show, former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, now national president of the Urban League, called for "an effort of 9-11 proportions."

To which I say, " To which I say, "What has your response been so far before the Feds arrived?" How well did the evacuation go? Why has the Superdome shelter been such an abysmal disaster? Why is so little information reaching those in the most need of it? Where is the food and water people need? Why weren't more National Guardsmen mobilized by the governor?

There's enough blame to go around. I'm a civilian blogging from his family room; they're the elected leaders in whom their constituents placed their trust. How does griping about Federal authorities honor that trust? How much confidence does it build in suffering survivors? If FEMA, the president or any other representative of the Federal government fails to provide adequite leadership, then fill the void! Mayor Guiliani, for all the differences I had with his education policies as NYC Mayor, rose to the occasion on 9/11. His command of the facts, presentation of practical information, and sincere yet unpandering exposition of the aftermath helped reassure New Yorkers that he could handle the City; that freed the people to take care of themselves and their neighborhood.

I know 9/11 affected New York City's land area and society far less than Katrina has impacted NO. However, NYC had no warning of 9/11, speculations of Able Danger aside. NO and LA, on the other hand, new Katrina was coming! Nonetheless, the leadership of city and state has failed to provide survivors with the necessities they need--of mind and heart as well as body. Someone had better step up to the plate and get going!