the forgotten elderly...despite heroism...

NYTimes has this horrific report of nursing home patients who were ignored and who died...many quite early in the storm...

Who was in charge of this? And don't blame Bush...the first death occured on August 29th...

"....The home, about 20 miles southeast of downtown New Orleans, is still surrounded by three feet of murky water. Eight vehicles are parked in front, covered in debris and mud.

Indeed, officials suspect that there may be hundreds of similar, though smaller scenes of death that will become apparent only after the water recedes and they are able to search every house in the region....

The story of St. Rita's leads locals here to voice the same frustrations they have about the entire disaster.

"Why didn't they evacuate?" Mr. Nunez asked. "Why?"

...

St. Bernard's Parish has five major nursing homes with roughly 65 patients each, said Henry Rodriguez Jr., the parish president. There are another six smaller facilities, he said. Almost all but St. Rita's were evacuated before the storm.

Steve Kuiper, vice president of operations for Acadian Ambulance, said he was told that St. Rita's had an evacuation plan that depended on another nursing home. Acadian, by far the largest ambulance provider in the state, used helicopters to evacuate many of the parish's neediest medical cases after the storm hit. But Mr. Kuiper said he never heard from St. Rita's.

"They didn't think this would ever happen," Mr. Melerine said. "They just didn't evacuate."...

Military and private helicopters began ferrying people out of St. Bernard Parish almost as soon as the storm hit. The Coast Guard spent much of the day of the storm landing people on a berm above the Mississippi River near downtown Chalmette, which is some of the highest ground around.

Mr. Nunez said he helped establish a shelter there. Water was running so fast down the nearby road that it nearly swept some of those seeking shelter away. Mr. Nunez said he had to tie himself to a tractor to save some people from the current.

"We ran a little over 400 people through that camp," Mr. Nunez said.

Dozens of boats are still on the side of the road in and around Chalmette, most of them washed there by the storm, and others stranded there after use by rescuers......