ON THE FRINGE—AL TZITZIT: Lessons (satirical & serious) from Hurricane Sandy

Monday, November 05, 2012

Shira Salamone said...: The family of one of my co-workers had an elderly relative living in a nursing home in Zone A, the mandatory-evacuation zone. The relative was evacuated, all right--but no one bothered to keep track of where he/she ended up! The family spend about a month and a half trying to trace her/his progress from nursing home to hospital to who-knows-where. Not even the City of NY's 311 non-emergency information office could track down the relative's whereabouts. To make matters even worse, the nursing home sustained so much damage that it went out of business, so there was no one to call. Finally, by pure coincidence, a family member mentioned the story to someone who actually knew something. The family was finally able to locate their missing relative and pay a visit. The relative died less than a week later. My co-worker thinks that, if they hadn't found their relative before her/his death, the relative would probably have been buried in a city cemetery as an abandoned pauper. One of the lessons that we should learn from such a shocking story is the necessity of keeping track of displaced persons, especially if they're in no condition to help themselves.; Mon Dec 31, 04:52:00 PM 2012

ON THE FRINGE—AL TZITZIT