The dispatches from New Orleans have been fairly grim, especially from doctors and hospitals. But, just over the horizon, a beacon of hope — The World’s Largest Medgadget is on the way:
The Comfort is expected to be part of what many say is the largest domestic disaster relief effort in years. The military is mainly providing search and rescue, medical help and supplies to the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
The Comfort is based at an industrial pier in the Canton neighborhood. The ship is a former tanker converted to a 1,000-bed hospital with 12 operating rooms. The Navy provides the medical and support staff, while the ship is sailed by civil service mariners from the Military Sealift Command.
The floating hospital sailed from Baltimore to New York on the day after the Sept. 11 attacks and treated injured disaster relief workers from the World Trade Center. It also served as a shelter for firefighters and other workers, offering meals, laundry service and a place to sleep.
More at the USNS Comfort home page…