Rerouted: Sen. Lott of Miss. steps in to divert hospital ship.

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 9/10/2005 | Henry J. Holcomb

[wjersey]

ABOARD THE USNS COMFORT - Most of this hospital ship's crew bunked down Thursday night thinking they were headed for New Orleans.

They didn't know that Trent Lott had other thoughts.

As the ship approached the mouth of the Mississippi River, it was turned around. Yesterday afternoon, the crew docked at Pascagoula, in the Republican senator's home state of Mississippi, waiting to receive victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The former Senate majority leader had pressed leaders of the relief effort late Thursday night to have the ship go to his state, saying three naval vessels were already in New Orleans and able to meet its medical needs now that so many people had been evacuated.

Susan Irby, Lott's communications director, defended the move. "All of our hospitals have been destroyed or damaged," she said. "Our folks in Mississippi are coming back in" to their homes.

Capt. Thomas A. Allingham, commander of the ship's medical units, said as the ship docked that he did not know when the first patients would arrive.

Four hours later, he said he had "sent messages up and down the line trying to get clarity on our mission here." His second-in-command was meeting with local leaders last night, and he plans to attend more such meetings early today, to get a clear view of the needs in Southern Mississippi.

The ship's dermatologist, Lt. Cmdr. Robert Guardiano, of Annapolis, Md., expects to be one of the busiest on board. Even minor scratches and sunburns, he said, can become infected in the conditions that exist in the hurricane-affected area.

The staff also expects large numbers of cases of dehydration and complications from going without medications for extended periods. There will also be injuries and instances of heat exhaustion among those working to clean up the area.

The Comfort is one of two fully equipped acute-care hospital ships in the fleet of the Navy's Military Sealift Command. It has 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms and is currently staffed by virtually all medical specialties, assembled from nine Navy medical centers and the volunteer relief organization Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere). When on full operational status, as it is now, the daily cost exceeds $700,000 a day, according to the Navy.

The ship sailed from its base in Baltimore shortly before midnight Sept. 2. Since Monday, when the ship picked up supplies and additional crew in Naval Station Mayport, near Jacksonville, Fla., the crew has been participating in drills - such as walking blindfolded, practicing how to abandon ship in total darkness.

The early part of the day yesterday was tinged with mystery. Those who rose early expecting to see New Orleans saw only open water, and the sun was rising from the direction the ship was steaming - east - instead of off the starboard side as it would be approaching New Orleans.

Lt. j.g. Bashon Mann, public-affairs officer for the medical units aboard ship, said about 6:30 a.m. Central time (7:30 a.m. in Philadelphia) that the ship was standing by at sea, with no specific destination, because commanders of the relief effort on land had said there was no immediate need in New Orleans. It would remain at sea, Mann said, where it could keep drinking-water tanks full with purification equipment that cannot be used when the ship is in polluted harbors.

An hour later, according to a reporter's handheld global-positioning-satellite receiver, the ship changed course and was pointed at Pascagoula.

[anglian]

Sailors from the multipurpose amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) are working alongside their Dutch and Mexican Navy counterparts in support of the ongoing Hurricane Katrina disaster relief efforts in the Biloxi and Gulfport Miss. , area.

Dutch Navy HNMS Jan v an Amstel Sailors have been working with the crew of Bataan in the disaster relief efforts the entire week. “We are glad to be of help to the U.S. , we all just wished it wasn't necessary,” said Lt. Cmdr. Henk Suurveld, van Amstel's executive officer. “What happened to the Gulf Coast was horrific and those people need to remember that there is still a world out there, and the world cares about the U.S. ”

Dutch Sailors have been working along side Sailors from Bataan and USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41) in Biloxi to help the local community recover from Katrina.

“Seeing the damage is shocking because instead of watching it on the news, you can really see it and smell it,” said Dutch Navy Corporal Luyendÿk Krÿn. “On the ship, you have assigned duties for an assigned job. At the disaster relief sites, they wanted us to help in anyway we can.”

The Mexican Navy ship Papaloapan along with the Jan Van Amstel, is anchored close to Bataan .


Bataan 's involvement in the humanitarian assistance operations is an effort led by the Department of Defense (DoD) in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
http://www.bataan.navy.mil/

[mrsmel]

the leadership(R) in that state did all the right things prior to the hurricane & has maintained law & order

I remember right after the hurricane was over,one of our law enforcment officials here(George Payne I think)saying something to the effect that he didn't have a problem with citizens doing what they had to do to protect their families and property(and he certainly wasn't going to go around confiscating our weapons). My stepson had to chase off looters from a neighbor's house who had evacuauted-her house had been gutted and defaced by the hurricane,and the garage was exposed-some guy came up that next morning trying to make off with one of the three bicycles she had in there-my stepson told him to get lost,and the guy said"she has three bicycles,and I need one,you can't stop me-my stepson showed him the gun he was carrying and replied,"oh yes I can",and the guy left.

Another relative-who lives in a rural area!-had to sit on his front porch armed due to a roving group of teenaged-excuse the term-trailer trash(that's what they were)trying to loot homes in the rural area that they THOUGHT were empty. Thank God,our police don't play,and they don't mind law-abiding citizens exercising their Constitutional rights either. I rather think they were glad of the help.

[Willie Green]

Personally I don't think we need most of the foreign help we're getting.

Instead of diverting our own resources, perhaps Traitor Lott should be content with the two Mexican ships that were sent as "aid".

Mexico buzzing about providing aid to U.S.
'Anti-Mexico' Bias Seen Over Truck Issue (Lott & Daschle Push To Allow Dangerous Mexican Trucks In US)

[Polybius]

Rerouted: Sen. Lott of Miss. steps in to divert hospital ship. Philadelphia Inquirer .......... Henry J. Holcomb........ ABOARD THE USNS COMFORT - Most of this hospital ship's crew bunked down Thursday night thinking they were headed for New Orleans. They didn't know that Trent Lott had other thoughts. As the ship approached the mouth of the Mississippi River, it was turned around. Yesterday afternoon, the crew docked at Pascagoula, in the Republican senator's home state of Mississippi,............

Henry J. Holcomb of the Philadelphia Inquirer is either a shameless political hack or an idiot.

Look at the map, folks:

Right smack in the middle of that red swath is the entire coast of the State of Mississippi!

Katrina: Mississippi's Gulf Coast - A Comprehensive Report

However, since the people of Mississippi have a Republican Senator, Henry J. Holcomb believes that they should be totally abandoned without even a single hospital ship while the entire resources of the U.S. of A., including Geraldo Rivera, is focused solely on New Orleans.

This is Yellow Journalism at its worst.

[WKB]

Mississippi ping

[WKB]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....What a way to ruin your morning before you are even out of bed..



Were the battrees in your remote run down?

[two23]

FNC interviewed a navy officer on the deck of one of the ships near NOLA the other day and they had a total of three patients on board.

[Logical me]

"And you are not thinking. See my last post. Ships supply each other. It is better to have them together."

This is bull. As a former Navy man, each ship is self contained. They are in fact over equipped as to the number of beds and operating rooms. Where did you get your information?

[two23]

I didn't see your post until I put mine in (post #47). Unreal, huh? Three.

[Guenevere]

Count me in as one of those emotional Freepers !

I'm not a Trent Lott fan, but he did the right thing, IMO, this time.

There has been scant coverage of the are where the hurricane made a direct hit.

Whole towns leveled......

..there are needy people there too, people in need of doctors and medicines.

The bias against Mississippi is unconscionable!

[HereInTheHeartland]

Yes. It sounds like NO has been tended to.
The vast other areas where there is much more damage with injury potential would seem to need medical help more.

[ican'tbelieveit]

Yeap, but we need another one in the area. Lott did the right thing; the people in MS need more help than those in NO, in my personal opinion. The coast of MS is missing for the most part, but no one is paying attention to their needs. Business as usual, essentially.

[PokeyJoe]

There are two Navy LST ships in New Orleans... they have two hospital staffs with massive amounts of medical units... and they only served 12 people. Let the Navy Hospital ship go where it's needed.... Mississippi.

[Non-Sequitur]

New Orleans is virtually empty and the situation there is well in hand. It would make sense for Comfort to go the the Mississippi/Alabama coast. Now, the question is why didn't the dim bulbs running FEMA realize this and send the ship there to begin with instead of having Lott intervene?

[MinuteGal]

Mississippi's governor is Haley Barbour (R.)

Louisiana's governor is Kathleen Bianca Jagger Blanko (D.)

Which state gets all the help and media attention?

Need one ask?

Leni

[ican'tbelieveit]

Because Bush is being called racist; they needed to prove that we will offer as much help as possible to dispel that.

[marty60]

The sick and dying had been evacuated from N.O. MS had NO hospitals. Hello, it doesn't take a brain to figure out this one. GEEEZZZ LOTT was taking care of his people. Unklike the Govenor and SINators from LA.

[pepsionice]

Trent is nowhere in this food chain...and its the Pentagon that orders the vessel to whatever location it goes. Alot about this story isn't ringing true...and I'd wait another day for the rest of the story to come out. Since there are no people left at the SuperDome or Convention Center...there really isn't alot for the boat to serve. And in such a case...being in the New Orleans area doesn't serve the mission of the vessel well.

[e_castillo]

"Trent should be retired."

Any reason why?

[oceanview]

good for you Trent.