Gangrene Sets In

That’s not a metaphor.

In the French Quarter there’s Ride Hamilton, 29. And there’s Joseph Bellomy, 23. Bellomy, a bartender, got a bit of medical training when he served in the Air Force. Hamilton, a homeowner, has stocked supplies that he accumulated “during daily ‘shopping’ trips to local stores, ‘trying to get it before somebody else does. We’re relying on ourselves out here’.”

[Bellomy changed] the bandage on the leg of Lisa Smith. Away from her earshot, Bellomy and Hamilton say they’re worried about the leg, punctured as she swam for her life during last week’s flooding. They say gangrene is setting in.

“We need medical supplies. We need help,” Bellomy said.

Smith’s wounds are one of many the two young men treat mostly with butterfly bandages, which must be the most sophisticated medical supply they have.

— From a wonderfully reported A.P. story by Dan Sewell — about survival in a guarded bar — reprinted in The Seattle Times.

About the animals: In Sewell’s story, he describes “[a] terrier that was dropped off by someone fleeing Katrina [that] is tied to a darkened lamppost. A male, he nevertheless has been named ‘Katrina’.”

“Animal welfare groups, which have been barred from entering most flood-affected areas of the Gulf Coast because of safety concerns, have finally reached parts of southern Mississippi and Louisiana to set up shelters and move hundreds of imperiled dogs and cats to safety.” The story also interviews the incredible Wayne Pacelle, nat’l head of HSUS. (USA Today)

NOTE: CNN’s Tom Foreman just went OFF on Chertoff and Brown. “It’s said why on earth would we keep people in their jobs who can’t do their jobs? Not for political reasons. For PRACTICAL reasons.” (The report is
“State of Emergency,” and it ticks off every one of Brown/Chertoff’s LIES. Can we find the transcript?)