`My understanding,” said the local owner of a Tennessee ambulance service, “was that he [President Al Gore] made this happen, that he actually arranged for this aircraft.”
“An American Airlines plane arrived at McGhee Tyson Airport at 3:10 p.m. Saturday with about 130 people from New Orleans.
“Former Vice President Al Gore was on the plane, helping patients. He did not grant interviews to reporters Saturday.
“Ninety of the passengers were patients from Mercy Hospital in New Orleans, … A dozen patients were taken to Blount Memorial Hospital. Ten were treated and released. Two were admitted to the hospital. Those not admitted … will go to a shelter at Blount Christian Church in Maryville. …
“Several patients were diabetic, and some needed dialysis. Many patients had been without medication for ‘several days,” but were ‘relatively stable,” said Dr. Roger Brooksbank, an emergency physician with Team Health at Blount Memorial Hospital.
“The remaining 40 passengers were evacuees who needed no ‘acute medical care’,’ according to Van de Vate. Regardless, all were taken to hospitals in Knoxville, Blount County, Oak Ridge and Jefferson County for evaluation. They were divided among the hospitals to prevent overwhelming them.
“There were two children on board who were not ‘chaperoned’,’ said Van de Vate. The children were taken to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital for evaluation. They would likely be placed in foster homes by Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. …”
— From “Mission of Mercy: Gore brings storm victims to home state,” Maryville, Tenn. newspaper.
RANT: Meanwhile, Skeletor Fuckwad and Smirk Fuckwad are prancin’ all over every TV channel they can get themselves on. Vampire “Dick” Fuckwad is still MIA…. oh, he’s probably flying people out of NOLA without making a fuss in the press. Sure. That’s gotta be it.
I am a very big fan of President Gore.
I’m a fan of every American human being who has a warm heart. Those lizard brains with cold-blooded hearts, they are not human, you know who I mean. They are doing ‘damage control’ right now but not for other people, for their own reputations.
Well gee whiz! A national politician actually got his hands in the muck of reality? Too bad he is not the president.
He is the legitimate president.
indeed he is- and he would be magnitudes better than than the ignoramus who is squatting in the oval office
It’s telling also that Gore didn’t just arrange for a plane but went himself and was on board helping care for these people…the old saying was never more true: Actions speak louder than words.
God Bless the legitimate President of the United States of America.
I look forward to hearing him give one of his barn-burning speeches about this outrage in the near future.
of heat, dehydration and starvation.” News on CNN.
Oh please, it is our worst nightmare. I thought that it could not get worse…
I have no more words. I’m going to turn to my artwork.
I can only imagine what kind of painful beaty someone as talented as you will create in the face of this.
Yesterday, I was with my daughter who had a booth at the Country Fair advertising her art college in Victoria BC. There was a group of seasoned artists at the table making small collages and ALL of them were related to the Katrina flood. This is from a small town in Canada. Our hearts are with you.
No thank YOU! Will they be displayng these collages in any way? I think it would be wonderful to digitze them and put them up online…
Katrina I, 4″ x 6″ collage.
Click here for larger image with details.
More next week from the others…
(Anyone can make these and making them is really a healing thing to do. Heavy paper, scissors, glue stick, stuff around the house is all you need.)
Thank you sybil.
Your ability to create in the midst of destruction is inspiring.
Bush knows he is not the president–he is only the pResident,sitting at will of his corporate masters.He is a weak, vengeful, bully, and like all bullies, he is a coward.
OMG! This breaks my heart for the lives that would have been saved with President Gore in charge. Bless you, Al, bless you.
Gore’s refusal to talk to the media says so much. Clearly he is not there to give a press conference or to seek personal glory. He just cares, and his actions speak for themselves. If this man was president things would be so different… and so much better. There needs to be a grass roots movement to urge him to run in 2008.
Abso-fucking-lutely. He needs to run in ’08 as a grassroots candidate. Sever all ties to the establishment. Remind everyone how they failed. Then maybe we’ll actually be able to get something done.
President Gore is a man for all seasons.
Thank you Al Gore. . .and thank you Susan for bringing us this story.
Did anyone see GMA on ABC this morning? I wish I had the name of the woman, but a 35 year old woman, who is a dance teacher in Mississippi, couldn’t stand it any more and organized, co-ordinated and is overseeing a rescue, and relief operation in Ms. She has an all volunteer group of Dr’s, nurses, and others able to offer help. She runs a command center and has been able to get over 700 people taken care of and out of the damaged areas. Said she just couldn’t sit by and wait for the politicians to argue out and figure out who was responsible to do what while people were dying and needing help.
If we can find her name, we might want to direct some money her way. Everything that is being done, she and the volunteers are bearing the expense for. . .and not complaining!!!
Maybe she will run for Vice Pres with Al Gore. . .or should.
Yes -indeed -step right up!I am trying to—–trying to help- but OMG if I was In LA I would be marchin people left and right
When I click at the Maryville, Tenn. Daily Times, I don’t see the photo.
Was it there before, and now removed?
Please fill me in. It is a curent photo from the rescue this week, correct? I do note “AFP” on the pix. I would be happy to have the info or link. — This story should travel!
Thanks, great, great diary ! (Maybe you should keep moving this story up near the top, instead of just linking to it from the top of the front page.)
Glad to hear a good story from this chaos. And there’s also no doubt given Gore’s passion for the environment that the wetlands and such would have been protected if he had been allowed to take office, that the money for reinforcing/fixing the levee’s would have been allocated instead of funding being continually cut these last few years. No doubt in my mind.
So on Saturday sick people in those hospitals still had not been rescued by our fucken fearless Fema leader…wtf
Imagine what it would be like, if he was living in the Whitehouse for the last five years. There would have been no WMD in Iraq, in 2002, that’s for sure. God bless Al Gore!
Plus, you have solved the mystery I have been asking about for the past few days. I now know where Cheney is. Thanks so much!
And he didn’t put on a special outfit?
This must just kill the emperor.
Perhaps we should compare the stage-managed lies from the Bush White House with what poemless at EuroTrib says happened when Clinton and Gore visited Mississippi flooding 12 years back.
Let me repreat that for anyone who missed it: “My father spent a whole day sandbagging with Gore.” Not five minutes for a picture opportunity.
Who should be the President? My eyes are full of tears for the injustice that has struck the US.