Tuesday, September 13, 2005

 

September 13: KFI's Angels

Today I'll be going out to a brand new clinic in d'Iberville (pronounced de Eye-berville), across the river from Biloxi. This area was very hard hit, the local clinic with two family practice docs was washed away. Sunday night I got word that a Dr. Charles was looking desperately for a doctor and a nurse to help out there. I got hold of Charles Runnels the next day: by then the situation had changed: instead of a picnic table, they had gone to a school, and now a double-wide mobile home which is going to be completely stocked with equipment and supplies by FEMA and the MS Health Dept. FEMA wouldn't do anything until the PH Dept gave its OK, but once the spigot was open, it was wide open.

Yesterday I spoke with Dr. Joe Dawcy at the clinic, offered to go out then, but he told us to wait until today. A nurse from California, Myhanh Nguyen, is going with me. She eagerly volunteered to go of the group of 19 nurses from Orange County whose way was paid by radio station KFI. Here I am with them: 'East coast girls are hip...' but these are California girls. KFI's Angels. Sorry, son, Myhanh's married. Durn.

We got another pile of meds from the FEMA pharmacy, now we're waiting on some tetanus vaccine. All of a sudden we got four more volunteers and a van. Hope they can make use of all of us.

Once again, the eagerness of folks to help is overwhelming. And the spirit of the local folks is terrific. Here's an example. Here's a local Vietnamese family bakery, a young fellow from the family who is cleaning up the mess, and Myhanh.

Having Mihanh along is great, as she speaks Vietnamese and there's a Little Saigon here. I drove her around the ruined part of downtown Biloxi, and we came to a Catholic church and went in. Below is a picture of Myhanh with the priest, Father Dong. Other churches had come to help clean up the mud and mess--the waterline can still be seen at about 8 feet above the floor.



Comments:
Your site was introduced to us by PowerLine and I am happy to note that the recommendation was well worth it.

More power to you and your group from a fellow Californian.
 
God bless you and all the best with your helping work.
 
I was directed to your site from Powerline. Thank you for writing about your activities and giving this natural disaster a very different feel.

As an Australian, I have heard the stories coming out of New Orleans, but nothing at all about the devastation in Biloxi. Your comments are informative and entertaining.

Thank you for caring about the people who have been ignored by everyone. All we hear about is the selfish attitude of the people in New Orleans, whilst all of the selfless people are being ignored.

On the other hand, God alone will take note of those who have volunteered to give help where they are most needed.
 
Dear Dr. Goodheart

I just would like to express
my gratitude for the work you and
your team of volunteers are doing
in Biloxi.

All my best,

Marie
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com