Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Ordeal in Chalmette, LA

Houston Chronical:

Dr. Bryan Bertucci, one of only two doctors in town when Hurricane Katrina hit, spent endless days keeping alive the 57 patients in his care. He moved them to the hospital's second floor and, when waters continued to rise, lowered them onto boats with a sling made from sheets so they could be transferred to the jail.

He told himself he could get through it because outside help was on the way — but eight days would pass before federal medical assistance arrived.

The assistance that eventually came was too late to save about 30 people who died in a nursing home after apparently being abandoned by their caretakers and an unknown number of others who might have been rescued had there been more help.

This industrial city, in the state's easternmost parish, is a swath of destruction stuck between more populated and accessible disaster areas in New Orleans and Mississippi.

It took eight days for relief to reach the area. There is much more in the story.