Prison used as hospital
2005-09-01 20:39
Baton Rouge - Authorities in New Orleans, desperate to rescue patients from stinking, unsanitary and power-starved hospitals, said on Thursday they had commandeered a prison to treat patients.
Louisiana's Mitch Landrieu said that patients had been moved from a hospital in the St Bernard Parish to a prison from which prisoners had already been evacuated.
"The jail has been transformed into a hospital because the hospital lost power," said Landrieu.
Patients, some critically ill, have been living in apalling conditions in New Orleans - one nurse told CNN on Wednesday that some were lying in their own faeces - since rising floodwaters knocked out generators.
Landrieu said that up to 6 000 people still needed to be evacuated from the parish, as communications problems hampered the rescue effort.
But he predicted that Thursday would be a "hump day, as the massive resources of the US federal government started to be brought to bear".