Today we sent nobody to FEMA. Dr Sherry continued to see patients door-to-door with ambulance crews in the Mandaville area, and a group of doctors made rounds on the shelters.

The Slidell clinic again saw over 300 patients, with a good number of children in the mix.

Our Thibodaux team continued to work 13 and 14 hour shifts in the Special Needs shelter there, operated by the Office of Public Health.

We operated a one-morning clinic in the town of Livingston, right beside the food stamp line. I believe our team saw around 40 patients there. Another group went up to Amite and saw quite a few patients there also.

After lunch, most of our doctors and nurses split up the major damage areas of Mississippi to tour, visiting shelters and hospitals to evaluate the need for our services. They came back with reports of all needs being adequately met, with no justification to continue to fly large groups of volunteers down here.

This evening, Dan, Dick, Barry, Rene, and I had a meeting to process all the info we have received. The final decision was to not bring in another group of volunteers this weekend, send those home who are left here at the regularly scheduled times Saturday and Sunday, and those of us in leadership stay until the loose ends are tied up.

That we can in good conscience make that decision shows me that we have succeeded in our mission here. We have seen many thousands of patients in the early days of the rescue and recovery. My reaction to this is satisfaction. While there are always areas for improvement, the fact that a very small group of individuals from Tennessee could deploy and function on extremely short notice impresses me, and I am deeply proud of the volunteers with whom I have worked.