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NURSING HOME OWNERS BOOKED IN 34 DEATHS |
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by Paul Rioux
Attorney emphasizes
risks of evacuation The owners of a St. Bernard Parish nursing home where 34 residents died during Hurricane Katrina were arrested Tuesday and booked with negligent homicide for allegedly failing to evacuate the home despite grave warnings about the storm's power and an offer by parish officials to send buses, state Attorney General Charles Foti said. Mable B. Mangano, 62, and her husband, Salvador A. Mangano Sr., 65, turned themselves in Tuesday afternoon and were booked on warrants for 34 counts of negligent homicide, Foti said. The couple own St. Rita's Nursing Home near Poydras, where Katrina's massive storm surge flooded the one-story building to the ceiling in 30 minutes, overwhelming bed-ridden patients in one of the deadliest storm-related incidents. The Manganos' attorney, James A. Cobb of New Orleans, said his clients are innocent. "It's ridiculous to arrest these two people considering the problems with the evacuation at all levels of the government," he said. As the hurricane raged Aug. 29, neighbors and firefighters rescued about two dozen of the nursing home's residents, many of whom were floated out on their mattresses. But the waters rose too quickly to save the rest, Foti said. Echoing assertions made last week by parish officials, Foti said Mable Mangano, the home's licensed administrator, refused two evacuation buses the day before the storm. He said she also failed to call an ambulance company under contract to provide ambulances and helicopters for patients with special needs. "They had adequate notice that the worst nightmare for the state of Louisiana was about to occur and they did nothing," he said. "Their inaction resulted in the deaths of these people." Cobb, the Manganos' attorney, said the couple was concerned that the stress of an evacuation would harm more residents than the storm. "You are presented with a horrible choice," Cobb said, citing reports of patients from other nursing homes in the New Orleans area who died during previous hurricane evacuations. But Foti said the nursing home owners had no choice at all. He said they were required by law to follow a mandatory evacuation plan filed with the parish government for hurricanes stronger than Category 2. Katrina made landfall as a Category 4. "Everyone kept saying over and over that this was the storm of the century," the attorney general said. "I don't know why they decided to stay." Foti said Mable and Salvador Mangano could not be located after they rode out the storm at the nursing home. After learning that authorities had obtained arrest warrants for them, the couple made arrangements to turn themselves in at the East Baton Rouge Parish Jail, where their bonds had not been set late Tuesday, Foti said. If convicted, they each face up to five years in prison for each count of negligent homicide. The decomposing bodies of those who drowned at St. Rita's were removed last week from the still-flooded home. They were taken to a makeshift morgue at a St. Gabriel warehouse, where none has been identified, St. Bernard Parish Coroner Bryan Bertucci said on Tuesday. In a parish where many families have lived for generations and residents take pride in looking out for one another, the tragedy at St. Rita's has left many searching for answers. "I don't know what went wrong," said Parish Councilman Tony "Ricky" Melerine, whose district includes the nursing home. "I've known Mable and Sal to be nice, friendly people, but they should have gotten those residents out." News of the arrests provided no comfort to Debra Marshall of Violet, whose 85-year-old mother, Laura Lae, lived at the home. She said authorities have not been able to tell her whether her mother was rescued or whether she drowned at the home. "My house was destroyed, but I don't even care about that," said Marshall. "I just want to know what happened to my mother." The residents rescued from the flooded home were taken by helicopters to a triage area on Interstate 10 in Metairie. From there, they were sent to shelters and hospitals throughout the region, Bertucci said. "We didn't have time to take names," he said. "People's lives were at stake." Marshall said her mother uses a wheelchair and is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease. She broke down as she began describing what her mother looks like. "I don't know what she was wearing, but I had just polished her fingernails," she said through tears. "They were bright pink." Marshall said she made the difficult decision to evacuate without her mother after the home assured her that she would be safer there. "One of the managers told me, 'If it's any comfort to you, whatever happens to the patients is going to happen to us, too,'" she said. After Marshall evacuated, her husband, Michael Marshall, stopped by the nursing home on his way out of town the night before the storm hit. The outer bands of Katrina were already pounding the area with rain when he pulled into the parking lot about 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 28. "They said they had everything under control," he said. "It seemed like any other night, except the owners were there." He said he visited his mother-in-law briefly in her room. "She was having one of her good days," he said. "She was in good spirits, and she recognized who I was." As usual, he gave her a Hershey's chocolate bar, and she insisted that he eat half of it. The TV in the room was blaring urgent reports about the approaching hurricane, but Michael Marshall said his mother-in-law seemed oblivious to the danger. "She asked where Debra was, and I told her she was visiting relatives," he said. "Then she said she was going to sleep, and I kissed her good-bye." Staff writer Laura Maggi contributed to this report. Paul Rioux can be reached at parioux@yahoo.com or at (504) 352-2545. |
