Katrina Hits Elderly the Hardest
From the AP, as reported in the Indianapolis Star:
When Katrina’s fury bore down on the Gulf Coast, the old people were the least able to run. Some could barely walk.
Somewere left in despair at a rural Mississippi school. Others drowned in aLouisiana nursing home. The lucky ones — the tough ones — got out.And now, wrenched from their familiar routines, they may have a hardertime coping with the aftermath than younger victims, experts say.
Thestory of older people and Katrina does contain uplifting sights, likethe elderly woman carried off a chartered jet from Baton Rouge by herson in San Diego on Sunday.
But consider whathappened late last week at an underpass in Metairie, La., when a mantried to get his 78-year-old father, who’s blind, and his 75-year-oldmother, who’s crippled by arthritis, onto a bus.
“Icouldn’t get them on because the young people, the healthy people werepushing and fighting to get on the bus. I couldn’t put them in thatsituation,” said Bruce Barnes, New Orleans.
Thathappened time and again as buses appeared, filled up and left. Evenwhen a bus was set aside for the elderly and disabled, the workerswouldn’t let both Barnes and his 62-year-old aunt accompany theparents. Rather than leave the elderly couple alone on the bus or theaunt behind, all four waited some more.