Not much time to write. Very busy. We are now entering the area south of NO. Unable to enter city proper yet as it is under water. Areas south of NO are mostly wind damage. Lots of people there. Found about 500 yesterday. They have had only military in the area so far. We are first red cross. Deploying our medical people to Harvey area. Too far from our big (40,000 meals a day) kitchen to transport warm food so they will get packaged stuff. MRE's and heater meals (which I eat daily).

All sorts of reasons why people stayed thru the hurricane. Spoke with a VietNam vet that got out of the hospital after major surgery just before the winds hit. Could not be moved without skilled medical help which was not available. We were the first folks they saw in about 14 days. His wife said they were very scared and would have left if they could have gotten help. we heard the "would have left if we had gotten help" story many times. I guess the governmental agencies said they would provide busses etc but they never came. I hear that Amtrack provided a train which eventually left NO empty cause the transport to the train never happened.

Looks like the medical people will be setting up shop south of NO and the remainder of the services will follow. But we are running thin. It is not only the level of destruction which is severe, but the geographical area which is so great. There are just not enough resources for the task at hand.

Nomad