[NRSKarenRN]

From healthleadersmedia.com:

New Orleans clinics to get millions

The secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that he would release a new round of grants totaling $195 million to support healthcare needs along the Gulf Coast. About $100 million will flow to clinics in the greater New Orleans area that provide primary care to poor and uninsured patients, the population that would otherwise rely on emergency rooms for basic medical needs.
New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 25, 2007

In addition to bolstering access to primary care, the federal grants will help the state recruit and retain doctors, nurses and other health professionals, whose ranks have thinned since Katrina. The $35 million will allow doctors and dentists to apply for up to $110,000 in income guarantees or loan repayments as an incentive to practice in the New Orleans area for at least three years. Nurses, dental hygienists and clinical social workers can apply for up to $55,000.

[pickledpepperRN]

This is so very important. I know people from New Orleans living here who want to return home. They are not poor but are afraid of being in such a healthcare poor area.
Even nurses who live there have to leave town to see a dentist because there is such a long wait for an appointment.

It it truly needed

[sockmonkey70]

Yaaay! I am glad to see something positive coming to New Orleans. Heck this might sway my mind to go work down there. It was always where I had intended on going to college and living, until Katrina hit

[Sheri257]

This is crazy ... plain and simple. The coastline around New Orleans is gone ... there are now seagulls flying around the city ... that never used to be the case before Katrina. When the next big storm hits, everyone knows it's going to be even worse than Katrina.

Instead of rebuilding an inevitable future catastrophe, that money should be used to help get those people out of there for good before the next disaster strikes.

I've never understood this ... the entire city is below sea level and floods on a regular basis. How many more warning signs do you need before people face reality? Why pour more money into an inevitable catastrophe? For nostalgia's sake?

When the next big one hits ... then we'll be asked to spend even more money to save the "victims." I'm sorry and I'll probably be flamed for saying this ... but if people are stupid enough to want to rebuild that city after what happened ... I just don't sympathize with them.

[caroladybelle]

They might be better served, if they got rid of certain crooked politicians and forprofit interests, that let the city drown, pts in hospitals be abandoned and die, and then blame the deathes on the some the HCWs abandoned with the patients.

Is there ever enough money to risk ones life, health, license, moral/ethical/emotional wellbeing in such an environment?

Especially, right before hurricane season.

[pickledpepperRN]

To live below sea level, ask Dutch

In the Netherlands, a system for holding back Mother Nature is a national priority that is suddenly of great interest to Americans.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/11/06/Wo..._sea_lev.shtml

Polders and Dykes of the Netherlands

...Today, approximately 27 percent of the Netherlands is actually below sea level. This area is home to over 60 percent of the country's population of 15.8 million people. ...

http://geography.about.com/od/specif...st/a/dykes.htm

Below Sea Level? No Problem

...Studies show without its sophisticated flood control system, an estimated 65 percent of the country would be submerged. In the old days, people built their homes on artificial mounds, or terpen, to wait out high tide; windmills were developed later to pump water off low-lying land. In 1953, a major flood obliterated postwar complacency about protection: The icy deluge killed more than 1,800 people and 200,000 pigs, horses, and cows, while also damaging 47,000 buildings. The Dutch quickly kicked off an almost 50-year effort to buttress flood guards that cost $14.7 billion....

...The massive project, called Delta Works, sculpted the landscape to close off all the country's major sea inlets-save three crucial for commerce-to limit exposure to the storms in the North Sea that had caused most floods....

...Engineers in the Big Easy, who consult extensively with the Netherlands, are planning to submit a plan to Congress in December for protecting their city from a Category 5 hurricane. "But we'll be just one project on a long list of budget priorities, and there's no funding guarantees," says Al Naomi, a senior project manager for the corps in New Orleans.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/ar...318/26dike.htm

Delta Works near Rotterdam

The other side in a storm

[Sheri257]

The Netherlands project is a great idea but, we all know that's never going to happen in New Orleans. The government is too incompetent and corrupt ... always has been ... always will be.

[sockmonkey70]

Originally Posted by Sheri257

This is crazy ... plain and simple. The coastline around New Orleans is gone ... there are now seagulls flying around the city ... that never used to be the case before Katrina. When the next big storm hits, everyone knows it's going to be even worse than Katrina.

Instead of rebuilding an inevitable future catastrophe, that money should be used to help get those people out of there for good before the next disaster strikes.

I've never understood this ... the entire city is below sea level and floods on a regular basis. How many more warning signs do you need before people face reality? Why pour more money into an inevitable catastrophe? For nostalgia's sake?

When the next big one hits ... then we'll be asked to spend even more money to save the "victims." I'm sorry and I'll probably be flamed for saying this ... but if people are stupid enough to want to rebuild that city after what happened ... I just don't sympathize with them.

I don't know why you would say it is stupid. If a proper system is implemented, the city can be salvaged. If you have never been to New Orleans, then you just wouldn't understand why it is so important to so many people.

[pickledpepperRN]

Originally Posted by sockmonkey70

I don't know why you would say it is stupid. If a proper system is implemented, the city can be salvaged. If you have never been to New Orleans, then you just wouldn't understand why it is so important to so many people.

Or if you love American music.

[pickledpepperRN]

In Europe, High-Tech Flood Control, With Nature's Help

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/06/sc...202ea4&ei=5070

Flood barriers on the Thames River.