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From today's New York Times:
[concerning 34 seniors citizens found dead inside St. Rita's Nursing Home in New Orleans] "At St. Rita's, 34 seniors fought to live with what little strength they had as the lights went out and the water rose over their legs, over their shoulders, over their mouths. As Gardiner Harris wrote in The Times, the failed defenses included a table nailed against a window and a couch pushed against a door.
Several electric wheelchairs were gathered near the front entrance, maybe by patients who dreamed of evacuating. Their drowned bodies were found swollen and unrecognizable one week later, as Mr. Harris reported, 'draped over a wheelchair, wrapped in a shower curtain, lying on a floor in several inches of muck.'
As Louisiana's death toll spiked to 423 yesterday, the state charged St. Rita's owners with multiple counts of negligent homicide, accusing them of not responding to warnings about the hurricane. 'In effect,' State Attorney General Charles Foti, Jr. said, 'I think that their inactions resulted in the death of these people.' "
Lest we reserve our ire for Brown, Blanco, Bush and Nagin (hey, how did a name starting with "N" get in there?), there are tons of other disgraceful elements of blame to go around for decades to come. There's going to have to be a new and separate circle of hell created especially.
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