Posted on 09/03/2005 5:35:24 AM PDT by Our_Man_In_Gough_Island
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, those affected have had to deal with many challenges, and now there is another growing concern -- disease.
Floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina cover a large portion of New Orleans Thousands of displaced people in New Orleans, still without food or water... Survivors making their way past corpses left on the street ...
"We want help! We want help," they chant.
And the floodwaters that submerged approximately 80 percent of the city of New Orleans have now become a dangerous sea of gasoline, sewage, decay... and a breeding ground for disease.
Dr. Julie Gerberding of the Centers for Disease Control warns, "The infectious diseases would be those associated with sewage and so any of the infections that are associated with diarrheal illness could be in the water."
The CDC is trying to prevent the spread of some diseases.
Julie Gerberding, CDC (file) "We have more than 30 people deployed to Mississippi and Louisiana. We have a plane in the air right now flying vaccine to Jackson, Mississippi."
Besides the broken sewage systems, the drinking water systems have been breached and are no longer functioning. It's an enormous problem requiring immediate attention, yet officials cannot even predict how long it will take before they can provide safe, drinkable water.
As displaced people fall ill, they have nowhere to go for treatment. Area hospitals have either been evacuated, or are filled to capacity. They are running on battery power only, and their batteries are running low.
Speaking by phone, Elizabeth Rees, a nurse at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, says the situation there is critical for people on respirators.
"Most of these ventilators are being run by batteries and when we don't have batteries -- unfortunately, they're going to die when we have no batteries."
Part of Louis Armstrong International Airport in Kenner, Texas has been converted into a makeshift hospital. Doctors and nurses from across the country have converged there to treat the wounded and sick from southeast Louisiana.
Some victims from New Orleans are already showing signs of flood-related illness.
"I just attended to a woman yesterday who said she was lying in water for a day and a half,” said a medical professional. “And her back was scaly and itchy and she was having problems with skin rashes and that's because of the water, it's contaminated with sewage."
Slowly, assistance is arriving. In Hancock County, Mississippi, National Guardsmen are handing out water, ice, and ready-to-eat meals to those who can make it to the distribution center.
... not to mention water snakes, alligators, garrs, and all the rest of a typical swamps' creatures.
If there are thousands of bodies floating around, wouldn't that attract sharks on a feeding frenzy? Why haven't we heard anything about that?
I doubt if sharks can live there let alone get there.
Because there's no sharks to report on.
The flooding is from Lake Pontchartrain - which is fresh water. Sharks are salt water critters.
Lake Ponch is connected to the Gulf via a channel. I am not from that area, but I would assume, as a result, the water is at least brackish, and there are sharks that can survive in that kind of water.
Some of the worst cases of shark attacks have occurred upstream in tidal creeks, such as the Matawan Creek horror in New Jersey.
Speaking by phone, Elizabeth Rees, a nurse at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, says the situation there is critical for people on respirators.
"Most of these ventilators are being run by batteries and when we don't have batteries -- unfortunately, they're going to die when we have no batteries."
Gee, I thought we all learned from the Terri Schindler fiasco that people like this take too much time and money to care for, so what's the problem here?
Seriously, I hope they can get the generators up soon to maintain those ventilators. I wonder why they can't move the patients?
Actually- the lake is the 2nd largest salt-water lake in the country.
The mayor and governor want these people to die.
Tempus et FEMA fugit.
It's a nice little drive into New Orleans from Kenner, but not that far.
:-D )))
Get out?!? Really?
If so, I stand corrected.
LOL! I know- usually we think of lakes as fresh water...but Lake Pontchartrain is salt water...here's an interesting link:
http://www.oldion.com/articles/Lake_Pontchartrain
aha, I see now, you "Wikipediaed" me. :-)
And not that I doubt Wikipedia - which can be edited by anyone IIRC, but every other 'reliable' reference I can find only states the water is "brackish". And thus far I can't find data on its salinity content. But one thing I found on the USGS website is interesting - the Lake is polluted as 'heck'. No swimming, no fishing, etc.
The way it reads, is that it seems worse than the 'old' Cuyahoga River in Cleveland was, which actually caught on fire, or the Chicago River in the 'old days' which in some parts would bubble up goop (Bubbly Creek).
Not true. Lake Pontchartrain is not a fresh water lake, it is connected to the Gulf and is probably brackish, there could be sharks there. Even if sharks are not normally in the lake they could have been forced there by the storm surge. A shark was reported swimming down Canal St. but that could have been a rumor or outright lie.
But the interesting is, that this link is a direct quote from Wikipedia. There must be a more reliable source on the net.
So now you did it, I'm on a mission! :-)
LOL:)
One interesting website for some history on flooding in this area http://www.oldion.com/articles/Lake_Pontchartrain
However Wikipedia has been known to slightly wrong on occasion. The USGS only says the water is "brackish", BUT that the lake is polluted as 'heck'.
I'm on a mission to find the salinity content :-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.