At Nursing Home, Katrina Dealt Only the First Blow

"5 a.m. Called Entergy and spoke w/Ms. Desire. She stated that she will report the power outage and the power should be restored as soon as possible."

"5:07 a.m. Power is restored."

"5:20 a.m. Power outage reported. Spoke with Suzy."

Eleanor Shelmire, a registered nurse, was filling out paperwork when brown water started gurgling up from the drains. Shelmire and her co-workers began moving patients to the large central dining room, the place where McDaniel said they would gather in case of emergency. Greenwood and others tried to hold the glass front doors shut against the wind and water. Pictures were blowing off the walls, and water began seeping into the dining hall where the patients were gathered. The generator failed.

McDaniel directed the staff to move all of the patients to the second floor. With the power out and the elevator not working, stairs were the only option.

"Come on, now, I know you can walk," Shelmire told those who were ambulatory. Gladys Cronin was in her wheelchair as she watched the water "coming in all the cracks in the building and the windows." A pair of staffers would grab either side of a wheelchair and hoist it up the stairs, struggling one step at a time. The water kept coming. Carmelite Cogan -- 91 and in a wheelchair -- was up to her chest in water.

Greenwood used mattresses to float the patients closer to the stairs. The sun was up and they could at least see. Evelyn Leal was beside her husband as he was lifted by his bedsheet and splashed toward the stairs. An Alzheimer's patient, Jules was fussing and disoriented. "Just be quiet, honey. Everything will be okay," Leal told him.

Others were confused or frightened and fought their rescuers. Some patients were so heavy that four staffers -- men and women working side by side -- labored to lift them, pausing to rest halfway up. By now the heat was stifling, and the staff was sweating and panting, racing against the water that sloshed higher.

McDaniel maintained her composure, but Greenwood could see she was upset. "She kept saying, 'I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry,' " Greenwood remembers. After an hour, everyone was upstairs. In a final act of civility, the still-warm breakfast of eggs and grits was served on paper plates.

Their refuge was a 50-yard-long hallway. The seven nuns who ran the nursing home had bedrooms here with two large lounges, a small laundry and kitchen, a room with a sewing machine and exercise treadmill, and a guest bedroom. Now the lounges and main hallway were a makeshift MASH unit, with a field of wilted bodies laid on the floor or propped in wheelchairs.

The staff gathered sheets and pillows for those on the floor. Many of the patients were soiling themselves, and the staff worked to keep them clean, washing their bodies and disposing of the soiled linens and clothes in large plastic bags.

Shelmire took stock of her supplies; she had medications such as insulin, Tylenol and suppositories. The food in the freezer and refrigerator would keep for a day. Ham sandwiches were made first. The staff poured water into cups with straws and insisted the patients drink. The heat was sapping them.