On the Southern Literary Trail discussion

It struck me recently that weather is more than just a topic of conversation in the South. It's a part of its cultural heritage. The Mississippi flood of 1927 is the subject of books such as The Tilted World and songs by Bessie Smith, Randy Newman, Led Zeppelin and countless others. Hurricanes from the Carolinas to Galveston are etched in everyone's memory. With that in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to add a discussion board where people can 'talk about the weather'. Have you read books about the Galeveston hurricane of 1900? Did you live through Katrina. Let's hear your thoughts?

What a timely topic, especially for us in New Orleans.

It was exactly 11 years ago today that the alleged mass murders - or were they mercy killings? - by Doctor Anna Pou and two nurses were perpetrated just a few hours before deliverance when the last inhabitants evacuated the filthy hospital by boat and helicopter.

Of the 45 corpses later found in the chapel (a makeshift morgue), investigators believed 24 of those souls had been killed by the staff so that they could then leave the hospital themselves. Several doctors and nurses reported the killings to CNN, authorities, and anyone who would listen - including nurses at my health club, openly discussing the euthanasia right next to me on the treadmills.

Fact-finding in the aftermath was incredibly difficult. Witnesses have evacuated to places all over the country. How does a coroner's crew accurately autopsy bodies that had sat around decomposing for over a week at room temperature, somewhere around 100 degrees? How does a community ripped apart, grieving the death of over 1,000 and attempting to rebuild their lives focus on the prosecution of a beloved doctor and nurses? Did grief or politics interfere with justice? Eighteen patients had elevated levels of morphine and Versed in their systems, injected shortly before their deaths. One of those was not elderly or semi-conscious. He was nowhere near death, but he was up on the 7th floor. Paralyzed. About 300 pounds. Did they help ease him into death as an act of mercy or cut him off like a ball and chain?

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital is written by the Pulitzer-winning author Sheri FInk who is herself an MD and has served as a relief worker in disaster- and war zones. If ever there were a person qualified to research and tell the story of these people who were injected with lethal cocktails, it is Fink.

Ahttps://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Her book describes the sweet natures of Dr. Anna Pou, of Cheri Landry, and Lori Budo - women dedicated to preserving life. These were wonderful care givers! But a disaster zone, no sleep, excessive heat, no power to run elevators or fans or medicine pumps, and gunshots in the distances makes for extraordinary conditions and strained decision making.

Just so you know, not only were both my children born at Memorial, but because our oldest was extremely pre-term, he was a patient at the hospital for four months. I have walked in and out of that hospital and parking garage hundreds and hundreds of times. One of the doctors featured in the story was my primary care physician for many years. Dr. Pou's grew up and attended school just a few blocks from my former home in the Fontainebleu area of uptown New Orleans. I have personal feelings about the wonderful nurses and doctors at Memorial, of course, but my mind has been changed over the years.

When you read what happened to those stuck at Memorial, be ready for a story that feels like horror. My review is here at this link https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

For an excellent interview with the author that came after her initial investigative report, but before even more details were outlined in her book, look here http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/31...

Thank you for these links

The whole situation left me in horror there are no words to describe it

Eric Larsen's "Isaac's Storm" is an incredible book about the Galveston hurricane. That was before they had names.

My sister lives in Mississippi, not far from New Orleans, and every year at this time brings up anxiety and memories of bad events. Also, her son-in-law was on the Deep Water Horizon, and the movie with Mark Wahlberg and co has brought up a lot recently as the trailers are showing up now. May I observe none of the family or friends look like their Hollywood counterparts. I suspect the people around whom The Perfect Storm was written did not resemble their counterparts much, either. I think the British and French are better at this, they more often cast people that look like people who you can believe lived those lives.

Many years ago, I read a novel based on the Galveston hurricane. I cannot remember the title. I remember liking it at the time. I have tried to research to see if I could identify it but none of the reviews I have read sound like the right one ; but then again it was several years ago that I read it . I will have to move up "Isaac's Storm" on my to read list.

Kim wrote: "My sister lives in Mississippi, not far from New Orleans, and every year at this time brings up anxiety and memories of bad events. Also, her son-in-law was on the Deep Water Horizon, and the movie..."

Kim, my husband is from Mississippi, and while they were "only" weekend homes, our family lost three camps in Waveland. Joey's Aunt Opal (the regionally famous artist Opal Smith) and Uncle Gary lived right on the main beach road in Gautier and decided to ride out the storm. Gary woke up around 3am to use the restroom, and turned on the TV to check the forecast which had abruptly aimed the storm at them. He hollered at Opal to grab their meds, passports, a few photo albums, and a change of clothes. They drove out of the house at 3:30am, never to return. It was entirely destroyed just a few hours later.

As for the BP movie, I'm actually in a scene with Mark Wahlberg and Kate Hudson. They're on a plane after the disaster with their small daughter. I was Texaco's offshore wellsite geologist at one point in my career and have actually been on a rig that caught fire. Very sobering.

I hope your loved ones are well. XO

Jane wrote: "Thank you for these links

The whole situation left me in horror there are no words to describe it"

What is interesting is that other doctors - Thiel and Cook - admit to giving lethal doses of meds to patients too, but I believe that because those folks were elderly and in dire straits, they were forgiven, just as nurse Wynn was. I did not know that nurses and doctors in the ICU regularly help end suffering this way.

I will say that EVERYONE went a little crazy. I know first hand that the tremendous stress altered people in bad ways. It happened to a friend of ours who is now serving a life sentence for murder.

Vince Marinello was a local celebrity - a longtime WWL sports caster who also broadcast during and after Katrina, taking on the role that other talk-show hosts did in helping others. Vince helped muster recovery efforts and was also a witty, kind hearted animal advocate, was beloved by the community and his peers.

Vince had been engaged to and lived with Jean, a girlfriend and co-worker of mine for many years, but before Katrina they split up because he never got around to filing divorce papers with his estranged wife. While he had not lived with the wife for decades, their Catholic faith meant that a divorce would nullify their marriage and therefore make their grown children illegitimate in the eyes of the church.

Vince married another woman after Jean broke up with him, but when new wife Liz found out he never filed the divorce papers (making him a bigamist), she threatened to expose him to his adoring public. How awful could that be, right? Bad.

All the media reports will tell you that new wife Liz was an angel, but my husband knows about a home video shot at a barbecue party that was never shown in court. The guy taking the video showed various people at an outdoor table, waving, and then he panned across the patio to Vince who was grilling burgers. He called out to Vince, who pivoted around to laugh and wave. Before the camera could pan away, Liz walked out of the house and said something to Vince. When he shrugged, she picked up a plastic chair and slammed it against the back of his head and upper back. This woman - when angered - was somebody to fear. When they split up, this furious woman was bent on punishing Vince, and now without a home, he moved in with his elderly mother.

During the Katrina aftermath, Vince was living with his mom and several dogs in a tiny FEMA trailer parked in front of her flooded, mold-ridden house. Insurance and FEMA money was non-existent - thousands of people here found out the same thing, and collective stress levels were beyond imagining. I honestly believe people's psyches cracked, and on the one year anniversary of Katrina, Vince donned a costume that made him look scruffy and homeless and shot Liz in the face two times and sped away on a used bicycle.

Back when my buddy Jean ended up leaving him, was Vince irrational about not getting divorce papers signed? Sure. But I'm convinced that he, like the media photographer that tried to get police to shoot him dead at Audubon Park were somewhat poisoned by Katrina. For Drs. Pou, Cook, and Thiel and nurse Wynne to euthanize patients was just a faster twisting.

I find it fascinating and horrifying what collective PTSD can do in one geographic location.

Diane wrote: "Eric Larsen's "Isaac's Storm" is an incredible book about the Galveston hurricane. That was before they had names."

Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History was my first Erik Larson book and I have bought everything he has read since. That was such an incredible story.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is that, with the Galveston Storm, Hurricane Katrina, the floods of 1927, Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Camille, and the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane in the Florida Keys, newscasters still call almost every storm or flood 'historic'. It's getting to the point where I have a hard time telling the difference between bad times and catastrophes.

LeAnne wrote: "What a timely topic, especially for us in New Orleans.

It was exactly 11 years ago today that the alleged mass murders - or were they mercy killings? - by Doctor Anna Pou and two nurses were perp..."

You've convinced me. Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital is moving way up on my TBTL (to be listened to) list.

Larsen s Dead Wake was good too