A Gripping E-Mail to Friends and Family from a Paramedic in New Orleans

Editor's Note: This is a letter to family and friends from a New Orleans Health Department Paramedic, as submitted to Firehouse.com. It has been edited ot remove some names. Take this letter for what it is ... an emotional dump to friends and family. Some of the specific information contained within may or may not be fully accurate and its the opinion and expression of the sender only

[Names Removed],

It me, [name removed]. You can't imagine what I've been through the last few days. It's indescribable. All I can tell you is DON'T GO HOME! There's nothing there. Nothing except people trying to kill you.

The city totally abandoned EMS and Fire. There's no communications. We've been on our own since the hurricane. There were crews stranded at the Bellsouth building in the East, and at the LSU Dental school, and at the Superdome.

NOBODY was going to evacuate them. The only reason they got out was because [name removed] himself got Wildlife and Fisheries to get them out by boat and Cedric organized a Blackhawk to airlift the EMS workers.

The city did NOTHING to help the EMS people, but they managed to evecuate the prisoners and the [edited] at the dome.

Tuesday we finally all managed to rendezvous at the dome and Mark was able to secure a military truck to get us out. About 80 or 90 of us went to the Hampton Inn across from the Convention Center because NOPD was there.

We were there for an hour when PD said to get out because the water was rising; take only one bag. We got our stuff together and went outside. NOPD was all in their vehicles and we were standing on the street like idiots. We begged them to stay with us, please to give us an escort or help get us out. They looked at us like we were stupid and yelled at us to get out of the way as they all drove off.

We were alone, in the dark, with no protection. No one was coming to get us. We decided to walk from the Convention Center across the CCC. the whole way we tried to get help, nobody came. I managed to find a working channel on the radio and talked to Jefferson Parish, begging them for help - transport, an escort, ANYTHING. They told me to [expletive edited] on the radio.

I don't know how they found us, but NOFD drove up and began to load us in their POV's. They took us to a nursing home on the westbank on Woodland and Degaulle that they had commandeered. The old people had been evacuated. They had food and running water and some electricity from generators. They welcomed us and fed us. They were fantastic.

We would have been killed by looters if we had nowhere to go at the bottom of the CCC. The only protection we had was [names removed] who had weapons. But NOFD had hundreds of weapons, and the nursing home was secure.

The next day we mounted an expedition to get provisions from the Wal Mart on Behrman. We had heard that NOPD had secured it after the looters had broken in. [Name removed] finally joined us with the dozen or so that had stayed at the dome the night before. He had commandeered a big Postal truck!

The people from the dome had managed to get their big trucks out the convention center where everyone was parked. We went to the WalMart where NOPD was helping themselves to anything and everything. We got there and gathered up food and underwear and sleeping bags and ammo and tampons and things like that. As were about to leave, we were told to leave our stuff where it was and get out.

NOPD was telling us that we couldn't take anything! I tried to talk to the commander; he said yesterday there were nearly riots because PD was taking supplies, so they were now getting stuff out the back door. I pleaded with him asking what we could do. He was going to explain to me until [name removed] ticked him off by saying 'He wasn't going to talk to me, she's the [title removed] and deal with her.'