Registered Nurse, Judy Rawinsky was on her way home, Friday, from a visit to her daughters in Texas, when she heard on the radio that Hurricane Katrina was going to hit Mississippi and Louisiana. When she got home to Hickory, La., she and her husband, Danny Rawinsky, listened to the weather on T.V. and checked the internet to get specific information. According to the news reports, Hurricane Katrina was due to hit Monday morning August 29, 2005. The Doppler radar showed that it would have significant impact in Slidell and New Orleans. Lake Pontchartrain was the only thing that separated these two cities. Judy and Danny felt that their home should be safe since they were 14 miles inland from Slidell, and the land was 42 ft above sea level. They had gone through many hurricanes while living in La. the past 30 years, so the only thing new was the expected intensity. They decided that Danny would stay at home and Judy would risk going to work at one of the hospitals in Slidell, La. since it was 3 miles inland from the lake. She knew that the hospital would need all the help they could get.
While driving to work, that Saturday, she saw that the police had changed the flow of traffic on highways 59 & 10 out of town, away from Slidell, but she was able to get through with a nurse’s pass that the hospital had given out ahead of time. By Monday morning, 6:30 a.m., Hurricane Katrina had made landfall. The rain and wind increased in intensity. She had last heard from Danny a couple minutes before that and then the phone lines went dead. The first floor of the hospital started flooding due to the wind pushing the rain into the building. The power went off and the generators kicked in, but they couldn’t maintain the air conditioning. The generators ran the hospital equipment and lights. Some of the hospital equipment had to be run on batteries. Shortly after that, they couldn’t even drink the water because of the contamination of the water from the storm.
After working a second 12 hour shift, she laid down in room 403, to get some rest. At about 9:30 a.m., she was awakened by the sound of cracking glass. The window had gotten a 6 ft long diagonal crack. She and everybody else had to be moved into the hallways. There was water coming into all of the room windows, and towels were put down to stem the flow. Then, unearthly quiet dominated the city as the eye of the hurricane passed over. Shortly afterward, the wind and rain started howling and roaring again, blowing from the other direction. The hospital sign crashed through a room and into the hallway. There were some injuries that were brought into the hospital, from windows breaking and furniture crashing into people. Doctors had to perform emergency orthopedic surgery after the storm for those injuries.
Meanwhile, in the town of Hickory, Danny Rawinsky was watching the storm and video taping it. The trees were swaying violently, the power lines were down, and there were already some trees down. He had to go back inside at around 7:30 a.m. because the wind gusts and rain were gaining speed quickly. He took the family pictures and put them into a closet. The back bathroom had water pouring into it from a tree branch that had punctured the roof and ceiling. He hadn’t even heard the tree tear into the house, because of the high volume of the wind and rain. On the enclosed back porch, he watched the trees and treetops fall, some very large and old trees were actually being ripped up by their root balls.
By Tuesday morning, he was able to come out and survey the damage. Their land was no longer a thickly treed pine paradise. He couldn’t even walk on the ground because of the treetops and trees that had fallen all over the land. The treetops were a result of intermittent tornados that were spawned throughout the hurricane. The carport he had so painstakingly built by himself last year was smashed down on his van and car. The neighbor’s house looked like it had a 20 ft hole in the roof where a tree had fallen down on it vertically. There was a tree on the gate, which he had to climb over to see if the roads were passable. From as far as he could see there were trees down. He and the neighbor, Jon, proceeded to clear the roads leading up to the highway, as well as they could, so they could get gas and water, and so Danny could go see Judy at the hospital.
At the hospital, Tuesday, people’s vehicles had gotten broken into, and somebody in the hospital had stolen a nurse’s purse. A SWAT team and off-duty Houston police arrived and set up checkpoints at the hospital for anyone who wanted to enter. The hospital management had satellite phones and allowed people to call relatives to let them know that they were okay. One lady had a transistor radio and that’s when Judy overheard that the New Orleans levees had broken. Some people that had been transferred from New Orleans hospitals were medivacked to the Slidell hospital which served as a transfer point.
Wednesday, Danny and his neighbor had been able to cut through to the highway and they were able to pass the road block because of a hospital pass Judy had given him also. They waited for two hours in line at Lowe’s where the workers were giving out water to people, and 4 hours at Sams Club to get gas for the generators at home, which they had to pay for with cash. Judy wasn’t even able to go home until the following Monday, after Hurricane Katrina.
The people in Slidell were lucky to have the staff of the hospital there, willing to go above and beyond the call of duty. What would have happened to all those people who needed their help if they all had decided to just leave Slidell until the hurricane had passed? Many people would have suffered longer, if not for the nurses and doctors that chose to stay behind and help. After all, these are unsung heroes that tend to be overlooked. These people are one of many groups of healthcare professionals that sacrificed their well-being for the sake of others, and in that way, they stayed true to the healthcare profession, tending and caring for those left in their care.
J.T.A. Knowles, Katrina Unleashed-Eye Witness Account, Associated Content
