Journal of trip: Our medical-surgical team of 6 arrived in Baton Rouge Thursday night, September 1st with the aid of Joe Gibbs Racing Team's jet plane. We were placed in families' homes gracious enough to put us up while we are here. We were hoping to helicopter into New Orleans as early as Friday, but our scheduled helicopter flight was cancelled due to President Bush shutting down the airspace during his visit. Baton Rouge is on the razor's edge of the destruction which goes east and south of this city. It was very crowded there already as this is the best staging area for relief support.  We were apparently on the helicopter flight path as they travelled over the home I was staying in regularly. I beleive the relief effort teams have a true concern for the devastated people in the gulf coast. Hopefully, there is still time to make a significant impact in saving lives from the initial tragedy.

    We worked at the Pete Marovich Center at the LSU campus in Baton Rouge Friday. They have turned it and the Field House into temporary field hospitals.  Our team performed tendon repair wrist surgery on a 36 year old trying to get out of an attic window who cut his hand/wrist on glass.  Several victims died while we were there.

     It seems true that catastrophies like this tend to bring out the best and the worst in people. The people of Baton Rouge  began taking people into their homes and doing whatever they could to make the situation more tolerable for the victims.  A helping hand  even branched out from the entire Southeast and beyond. This situation is overwhelming and made more difficult by the few, frustrated residents/refuges of New Orleans sometimes hindering the relief efforts. We hoped that condition would be alleviated in the next few days.  We did hear that segments of the 82nd Airborne were being deployed down  to assist.

     Communications was a real problem down there as either there was no cellular service, the regular phone lines were down, or when cellular service occurred, the circuits were so over-run with usage that one could not get through using them.  The command center in Baton Rouge was buzzing with incredible activity 24 hours a day. It was inspiring to see the dedication and selflessness of the volunteers trying to help as much as possible.

     Our 6 man team went  into New Orleans early Saturday morning  to Belle Chase Naval Air Station on the west bank with the US Coast Guard. We spent most of the day waiting for 10,000 to 20,000 refuges to be evacuated there which never occurred. It would have been our 4 doctors and the three military doctors on site to care for them all.  Our anesthesiologist treated and stabilized a 6 week old infant which was medi-vac'ed to an outlying medical center. We then flew via Navy helicopter to MSY New Orleans International Airport where they were definitely overwhelmed!  The skies were filled with helicopters bringing patients and supplies there. I saw 6 helicopters flying all around us in the air as we approached the airports landing strip.  There were literally hundreds and hundreds of them landing every few seconds some coming from as far away as Singapore!  Sections of the west bank and alot of east bank New Orleans were still underwater  Devastation was everywhere.  Even the outlying areas of marshland had all the trees blown over like matchsticks from a nuclear explosion. I was able to take some graphic pictures during the fly-over. We walked into the Baggage Claim area and were met by the stench of death as displaced victims were being transported in luggage carts.

     I am somewhat dissipointed in the FEMA organization at the New Orleans Airport especially compared with the excellent job of organization at the PMAC at LSU in Baton Rouge. There were just thousands and thousands of people being brought there by bus and helicopter.  It was a logistical nightmare of sorts. The 43rd Aeromedical Evac Squadron was down there at that airport and was supplying the only air evacuation capacity. I spent some time with them as they are based out of Pope Air Force Base and I am their Honorary Squadron Commander!  Most of the tremendous amount of traffic is triage of unfortunate, displaced individuals which are being flown out by commercial jet to other areas and a lesser amount (although still thousands) of basic medical care patients. We realized our expertise was beyond the scope of their staging area as there was no  significant amounts of potential surgery patients. Because of this, we decided to return to Baton Rouge to the PMAC where our surgical skills will be better utilized.  We travelled back from New Orleans escorting a caravan of 6 buses bringing about 300 people to the PMAC.  Most of the patients on the buses were elderly displaced individuals. They were trying to run buses continuously to transfer people out of New Orleans Airport as quickly as possible. 

    We spent most of the day at PMAC field hospital Sunday and Monday.   Multiple surgical and critical care procedures were performed by our team including: incision & drainage of an abscess, stab wound exploration, urological surgical procedure, assisting in obtaining a surgical airway in a patient with acute respiratory failure.  Andy & Charlie stayed at Jefferson Baptist Church to help coordinate relief through various interstate ministries, one of which is a mobile kitchen that feeds 30,000 people per day.  Operation Blessing, the international relief organization, had contacted me down there and we  facilitated getting supplies into the area. Millions of dollars worth of antibiotics & humanitarian aid were supplied to the LSU Health Care Services in Baton Rouge, in part because our team was on the ground there and able to help with logistics.

     A major problem is that these people don't know what to do after being taken far away from their homes.  They were asking where do they go after being processed at the field hospital in Baton Rouge or being placed in temporary shelters.  Operation Blessing contacted me about the potential of finding homes for some of these displaced families.  They are in the process of matching families that need a place to stay with individuals or groups, around the country that are willing to accept the evacuees into their homes/schools/churches. Several people from Fayetteville had expressed that interest to me.  We coordinated bringing 5 families (21 evacuees) from New Orleans staying in a shelter in Donaldsonville, LA to Fayetteville on Tuesday, September 6th. This was accomplished with Operation Blessing identifying the families and the efforts of Joe Gibb's Racing Team who supplied a 40 passenger aircraft to transport these families to a better condition and a better life in the future. Each family was adopted by local area churches and have been inclucated into the community.

PS. The 5 relocated families have all moved into houses/apts, have started jobs, have all their children in the school system, and are adjusting to their new lives!!!!!!