My Motorcycle Nightmare

Katrina was upon us, so the nurses started to aggressively push our hospital beds into the halls and shutting all doors to every room. My wife kept pacing the floors as she watched from a window, how the trees were almost swaying to the ground from strong winds. One nurse asked Joyce to please stay in the hall with us, as she reminded her how dangerous it was to stand in front of windows in here at a time like this. We actually felt a lot safer in the halls with the doors shut, because as Katrina progressed, the sounds of glass breaking were noises from the windows breaking and shattering. According to our local television station this hurricane formed over the Bahamas, crossing over southern Florida to the Gulf of Mexico as a category one causing deaths and flooding.

Now as a category three, and the third strongest storm to hit United States since 2005. Feeling very terrified about this thirteen story building which was built in 1939 as I lay in bed wondering if it could even with stand what we were in store for. About one hour into Katrina, as she passed over us our electricity went out. It was so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. With temperatures at 90 degrees outside and as it got hotter and hotter with no air circulating. Just lying in bed still not able to move, I could feel the sweat dripping off my body. With fierce winds and hard rain coming down, unsure if we’re going to survive it all. Through any hurricane, you pray for the best and expect the worst.

Everyone was very worried and on edge not knowing what was coming next. I was afraid of infection setting in and bed sores from the intense heat. We prepared for a long and an extremely hot night. The next day I was aware of a heat rash that broke out all over my back. The doctors and nurses had to use a generator only at night, for in case of crucial circumstances. They encouraged us to plug up our cell phones, making sure they stayed charged throughout the night in case our families phoned us. This was the only means of communication we had with the outside world.

Finally, late that morning they began pushing our beds back into our rooms. Workers were breaking windows with hammers to the ones that were not already broken just to get some air circulating. Our menu consisted of one can of Vienna sausage, canned beets, canned green beans, packaged crackers and bottled water. These were our only food options we had keeping us alive for the next few days and everyone was very grateful for that. Our hospital cafeteria had been flooded which was located, in the basement and so was the pharmacy. We were ordered that no one had been allowed down there due to a foul odor. Everyday being advised by the staff that we were going home that day, but no one showed up to rescue us. This continued for four days, living in darkness with very limited food and bottled water and so hot you could barely stand it. By now the only pain medication left they had access to was regular Tylenol. Every single day the nurses persistently called Radio and T.V. stations begging to please send someone to rescue us before we ended up dying from dehydration and lack of food. We were apparently now at the point of running very low on our water supply. A patient tried escaping, so the nurses strapped him to the bed keeping him safe. This man complained of losing his sanity from knowing they were leaving us here to die. Little did the nurses know that he had a knife in his pocket. He cut off his restraints with his knife and left the hospital. My heart went out to this guy because everyone stuck here, pretty much felt the same way, but nothing could be done.

My wife and the people she became friends with emerged outside to get a breath of fresh air. All of a sudden they heard gun shots. She was on the fourth floor and the gun shots were coming from the third floor. She was told they had a man looking for drugs and when he seen a guardsman, he started shooting at him so the guardsman shot back killing him and they left him on the stairwell, running back inside the hospital fearing for their own lives. They also had a sniper on the catwalk shooting at people. Joyce said how awful it smelt down the stairs, which was a combination of gasoline, raw sewage, oil and dead bodies.