Three Nursing Home Patients Die During Hurricane Evacuation

(Baton Rouge, Louisiana) This story comes about a year after two nursing home patients died during evacuation for Hurricane Ivan.

From WWLTV.com:

An official with the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner's Office says three residents of a New Orleans nursing home fleeing Hurricane Katrina aboard a school bus died today (Sunday) during an evacuation to a Baton Rouge church.

The names, ages and sexes of the dead were not available.

Don Moreau, chief of operations, says the coroner's office responded to a call from emergency medical technicians to a Baptist church, which was the destination for the bus of nursing home patients. Once there, Moreau says one person was dead inside the church and another was found dead inside the bus.

He says the person in the bus appeared to have been dead for some time.

Moreau says the others on the bus, 21 people, were transported to Earl K- Long Hospital, where a third nursing home resident later died.

No clues on the causes of the deaths, however, the coroner's office remarked that many people on the bus appeared to be dehydrated. It's not known how long the evacuees were on the bus. Nevertheless, it appears that the evacuation process itself can be life-threatening to nursing home residents.