When the Wind Turned (8)

A Katrina family story (Chapter Eight)

PREVIOUSLY ON When the Wind Turned (Chapter Seven)

Jeremy was still trapped inside a flooded Charity Hospital, performing surgery by flashlight as the storm shredded New Orleans around him. He wrote his family’s initials on his gloves like a superstition, a tether, a prayer.

Frankie and the kids reached a Baton Rouge hotel after escaping New Orleans on a National Guard truck. Tired, shaken, but safe. Jeremy remained trapped inside Charity Hospital, performing surgeries by flashlight as the levees failed and the city flooded. The National Guard finally reached the hospital with plans for a medical evacuation. For the first time in days, both halves of the family felt the faint, impossible return of hope.

Word reached both ends of the broken line:

Medical staff would be pulled out of the city.

Jeremy was alive.

And the waiting began.

CHAPTER EIGHT — Reunion

Date: September 1, 2005

(the day medical staff begin evacuating Charity Hospital)

THE CYPRESS CROWN HOTEL — 6:14 AM

Frankie has slept only an hour.

Every time she closes her eyes, she sees the flooded stairwell described by the Guardsman. She sees Jeremy climbing through pitch-black hallways with only a headlamp. She hears the word evacuation over and over.