Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Hurricane Gustav

I have been wanting to write a post about Hurricane Gustav, but I don't quite know what to say about it. Considering that this:



Baton Rouge neighborhood is behind the apartment complex I lived in during my graduate school days, I think I'm glad I don't live there any more. But my heart still aches for my city, and part of me wants to be there with them. You can't live in a place for seven years without developing a bond with the people who live there.

The city suffered a lot of damage in this storm. Downed trees have left many, many people (1.4 million the last I heard) without electricity. It is estimated that it will take 2 weeks to restore power to all the people in the region. Please keep the people of south-central Louisiana in your thoughts and prayers.

And if you're willing and able, please consider making a donation to the Woman's Hospital Hurricane Relief Fund to help families impacted by the storm. It is difficult enough to deal with a hurricane and its aftermath, but these families are also dealing with the trials of having a baby in the NICU. Having to deal with these two challenges at the same time is difficult at best. I know. My daughter was in the NICU at this hospital during Hurricane Katrina.

2 comments:

Amy said...

Just clicking to the Woman's Hospital link made me cry. As you know, we made our exit from the NICU just days before Katrina. I donated all my daughter's preemie clothes and many, many blankets to the NICU babies. (My son was still in his preemies, as he had just been released after a 2 month stay and was a little scrawnier than his sis.) Have I ever told you my sister works at Woman's as a Nurse Manager?

Thanks for linking to them. It's a great cause.

Julie R said...

Amy, I cried when I clicked on the link too. Kaitlin was discharged on Sept. 2, 2005, so the day was a bit emotionally charged already. Reading the news about all the babies that were evacuated to Woman's really brought back memories of the day they sent her home. The normally quiet Special Care Nursery was totally chaotic. There were multiple babies in ever section. Kaitlin shared her formerly private cubby with a baby from New Orleans. A group of triplets were all put together in one "pod" so they could share a stethoscope because there weren't enough to go around. There were extra beds everywhere lined up against the wall. Tons of doctors and nurses running around. They didn't even know the names of some of the babies because they were just snatched out of hospitals and put on helicopters for the trip to BR. It is an image I will never forget, and I want to do everything I can to help.