This is how I spent my 8th Wedding Anniversary:

My wife Carol (Director of Nursing) and I along with the very helpful staff had to evacuate the patients last night from St. Charles Specialty hospital on St. Charles Ave. and Amelia. One of them was on a ventilator and if the power went out he would die, that was keeping him alive. We estimated that the generator had about 8 hours of fuel left.

Under the cover of darkness our Caravan made it way through the streets driving around trees and downed power lines. We tried to make our way to Tchoupitoulas because there was a lot of rumors about water along St. Charles Ave. Rebecca Newman one of the Physical therapists, a triathalete, had gone running that morning so she knew Tchoupitoulas was clear. One block before Tchoupitoulas we had to turn the whole convoy around because of a downed tree. One of the Neighbors living in that area stuck her head out of a doorway and told us to take 7th street and it was clear. We finally made it up onto the GNO Bridge and onto the west bank.

I saw one of the "packs of Police cars" 10-12 cruisers on the expressway, lights blazing on the other side of the expressway. On the way to Baton Rouge we saw convoys of boats, Busses, National Guard, Utility and heavy equipment trucks. All the while the nurses and respiratory therapists are manually keeping the patient alive by ambu bagging him 4 1/2 hours all the way to Alexandria LA.  It was the closet hospital we could find to accept our patients Baton Rougehospitals  were full.   We arrived with all our patients alive and well and admitted them to Rapides General Hospital. The employees here have been nothing but compassionate, kind and generous. They bought us dinner (Taco Bell the only thing open at 2AM) and put us up in the facility.

This morning in the patients’ room he kissed my wife's hand and whispered, "Thank you, I didn’t want to die."

Michael Siu

Photos in my portfolio

Katrina Video at http://216.66.69.106/orleans

website for Direct donations soon  no red tape I am giving everything that I can directly to the victims here, my employees and employees of my wife at St. Charles Specialty hospital many of whom lost everything.

Please keep in mind that we may not even have power for 90 days.  Imagine not being able to work for that long.

www.orleansdisaster.org  or www.orleansdisaster.com

Paypal:

[email protected]

Thank you for that account and for offering an alternative to the Red Cross.

Michael, thanks for sharing your great story. It's good to know that people like yourself are there.
Wishing you all the best during the next several months and beyond.
Mark