Since 1926, Pelican Publishing Company has been committed to publishing books of quality and permanence that enrich the lives of those who read them.
Disasters & Disaster Relief
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed thousands of homes, schools, and businesses across the Gulf Coast and changed the face of southeast Louisiana forever. However, nearly a hundred miles northwest of New Orleans, in Lafayette, Louisiana, a different story was unfolding. As men, women, and children waited on their roofs for rescue, executive director Greg Davis hurried to prepare the Cajundome in Lafayette as an emergency shelter.
In the media storm that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005, nursing home owners Sal and Mabel Mangano were vilified for allegedly causing the deaths of 35 residents of St. Rita’s Nursing Home in low-lying St. Bernard Parish. This book, written by the lawyer who defended them, reveals the gripping, true story behind the couple’s heartrending decision not to evacuate and their persecution at the hands of the government sworn to protect them.
This is the ePub/eBook version of this title. This is not the print edition.
As the rest of the world watched the worst of humanity emerge on television, ordinary people did extraordinary things to save the parish that found itself almost completely submerged in floodwater. Heart-wrenching stories of the human will to survive offer an inside perspective on what it means to be a survivor of Hurricane Katrina.
In the days following Hurricane Katrina, a small parish in Louisiana known as St. Bernard, suffered some of the worst damage. The storm itself brought significant destruction, but the ensuing floods are what labeled this event one of the worst national disaster on American soil. The author, whose father and son were both members of the St. Bernard fire department during the storm, came face-to-face with the harrowing stories of the brave men and women who became heroes to so many.
As Hurricane Katrina barreled towards New Orleans, Louisiana, hospitals across the city prepared for the coming storm. Staff members streamed in and began stockpiling food, water, medical supplies, and fuel. But what no one foresaw was that their emergency generators would flood and fail, leaving hospitals stranded in the rising water with no air conditioning or much of their equipment and unable to evacuate patients and staff by land. Throughout the devastating winds, rising waters, and August heat, nurses stuck by their patients. They improvised new emergency procedures and methods of record-keeping and patient transport, all without power or reliable information. These angels saved lives while their world fell apart around them.