Anybody in/near Baton Rouge?...UPDATE/Post#9...*Article(Timely, but sad)-Post#7

[agnes!]

I am now helping a Social Worker try to find a missing resident of Ferncrest Manor, a nursing home in New Orleans. In the course of my research, I have become aware of 7 other missing Ferncrest residents who were in the same general group. Maybe if I can find one of the ones still missing, the others would be found as well. (I was talking to this Social Worker about the woman I've been searching for for over 6 weeks, Onelia Cherrie, and he mentioned he was also looking for someone and then I said maybe I could help...)

Anyway, many Ferncrest residents were evacuated to the Baton Rouge area. If anyone reading this lives in Baton Rouge and could e-mail me a list of area nursing homes & their phone numbers, I would greatly appreciate it. Not every business is listed on the Internet, and not very nursing home or elder-care residence in the state is a member of the Louisiana Nursing Home Association. All I can think of to do at this point is to personally call every nursing home there and ask if they have *any* residents from Ferncrest. (I've already called quite a few.)

Btw, since I got this latest list of the missing, I was able to find 3 residents that the Medical Records Administrator was unable to locate. So there are only 5 of the missing left .

Thanks,
agnes!

 

[bcsmom]

I live in Baton Rouge, these are some that I have found. Flannery Oaks 225-275-6393; Heritage House 225-924-2851; Heritage Manor 225-293-4126; Jefferson Manor 225-293-1434; Lakewood Quaters (I think this is more of a retirement center) 225-766-0130; Regency Place 225-272-1401; Sherwood Manor 225-291-7049; St. Clare Manor 225-216-3604; St. James(this is a retirement center) 225-215-4500; Sterling Place 225-344-3551; Sunrise(this is assisted living) 225-932-9400. Good luck, and I hope you find everyone that you are looking for. I hope this helped.

 

[Zurealsoon]

This is just heartbreaking that families still haven't found their loved ones.
Good luck.

We get the Baton Rouge paper, and the cover story today was of a paraplegic man and his elderly mother who were supposed to be Air Lifted by
Acadianan Ambulance before
the hurricane in Chalmette. It took their relatives 24 days to discover they

were never rescued, and died in their home from the 10 foot storm surge.

 

[snappy]

I read that story as well, how heartbreaking, especially how the two were found with the mother with her arms around her son. Apparently the ambulance company told the mother many times they were coming for them.
There has to be a better way to make sure the handicapped are rescued.
They were picked up for every previous storm, and then when they really needed help, the system failed them. I don't think I will ever forget that story.

 

[snappy]

Here are some more from the yellow pages;

Acadian rehab and nursing center 225-387-5934

Baton Rouge helath care center 225-774-2141

Capitol House Nursing and Rehab center 225-275-0474

The care Center 225-275-7570

community Care center of Baker (nearby city) 225-778-0573

Golden Age nursing home 225-665-5544

The Guest House 225-272-0111

Harvest Manor Nursin Home 225-665-8946

Hillhaven Nursing center east 225-387-6704

Lakeview Manor nursing home 225-638-4404

Louisiana guest House 225-356-0644

Ollie /steele Burden Manor00225-926-0091

Plaquemine Manor 225-387-1345

The Retirement center 225-272-9339

Southern Pines Retirement community 225-664-9423

Zachary Manor 225-654-6893

 

[agnes!]

Thanks everyone for the business names and the phone numbers. I'll make more phone calls later today, after the various administrators get to work (starting 9am New Orleans time). If I am able to find any of the people from this missing Ferncrest group, I will post it here.

How heartbreaking...that story about the elderly mother and son. Could someone PM/e-mail me the online URL so I could read the entire story? That mother could probably have saved herself, but she made the choice to stay with her son. There's a special place in heaven for her. I am truly sorry that Acadian Ambulance and any other evacuating authorities failed this family. From what I understand, Acadian performed heroically in other evacuations.
And what's really bad is that the family had to wait so long to find out this sad news.

agnes!

 

[agnes!]

Family demands answer in 2 deaths

Pair died despite evacuation promises

By SANDY DAVIS

Advocate staff writer

CHALMETTE -- Dorothy Hingle lit a candle sometime after 9 a.m. Monday, Aug. 29, in her small brick home on Rosetta Street. She crawled into bed with her quadriplegic son, Russell Embry, put her arms around him and prayed. Then she waited.
That's what her daughters have pieced together as her final actions while Hurricane Katrina cut its deadly path through St. Bernard Parish.

A wall of water came crashing over Chalmette within an hour, swallowing mother and son in a small bed in the rear bedroom of the home.

Hingle and Embry died.

Their relatives say the two had waited since Saturday for Acadian Ambulance and Med Air to come and pick them up.

But Acadian never showed up.

Embry, 54, a quadriplegic since 1974, was on a special-needs list compiled by the parish's Department of Human Resources. The list was for those who needed to be evacuated by ambulance in the event of a hurricane.

Hingle was listed as Embry's caretaker and, over the years, was always evacuated with her son.

"It was like clockwork," said Sally Viada, one of Hingle's three daughters. "My mother and brother had been picked up and evacuated by ambulance before every hurricane for at least the last 10 years."

During Hurricane Ivan in 2004, Acadian picked up Hingle and Embry, who was 6 feet, 4 inches tall and weighed about 250 pounds, and evacuated them to Barksdale Air Force Base.

"It never occurred to me that anything could go wrong," Viada said, crying quietly during a recent interview.

And it is Acadian that holds the exclusive rights to provide the wide array of ambulance services needed by residents in St. Bernard Parish. Parish officials signed a contract with the company in February 2004, said Larry Ingargiola, director of the parish's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

*****

The complete article can be found at: http://2theadvocate.com/stories/102605/new_promises001.shtml

After reading this article I am speechless.
And I must tell you that words do not fail me very often.

agnes!

 

[snappy]

This is an excerpt from that same article, close to the end. I wanted to post it as well.

A few weeks ago, the sisters went to their mother's house.

"We found her purse by the door because she was ready to leave," Cooley said. "We also found a candle tipped over with wax that flowed out when the flood water washed over it. That's how come we know she was praying. She always lit a candle."

"The only thing that I keep thinking about is what my mother always told us," LeBlanc said. "She always said, 'Betty, the Lord won't take anyone one second too early or one second too late.' "

My words:
I hope that seeing the candle and knowing what it meant was some comfort to the family.

 

[Desiree]

That's how come we know she was praying. She always lit a candle."

Wow that gives me chills

 

[agnes!]

I am now down to four missing residents, ones that Ferncrest's administration doesn't know where these people are.

This last person I found was at Acadian, from one of the posted BR nursing home lists (so thanks are due to "snappy" and "bcsmom" .) It turned out that the family knew where this individual now was, but hadn't been able to inform the original nursing home.

agnes!

 

[snappy]

Glad you are making progress, Agnes!