Song in my head: Na na na na...... hey hey hey..................goodbye..................................Steam

Alter-Abled News

Watching the news the last 3 weeks has been like watching a category 4 hurricane spinning lives and values about like tumbleweed in a vast desert.

It was anger that I felt while reading the horrible news today of 24 nursing home patients dying in a bus as they are being evacuated from Houston. As a former health and safety professional my thoughts immediately were focused on...the way these patients oxygen tanks were locked into place. I sincerely believe that the 24 deaths were preventable with some common sense approaches to pressurized tanks. Were the tanks firmly chained in place? Did the bus have the capabilities to effectively and safely tie down these gas tanks? Why were buses being used in the first place?

My point being that this was preventable. What a horrific way for someone's mother to die. According to this WaPo article oxygen tanks were being stored in the cargo area.

"But then oxygen canisters in the passenger compartment and in cargo holds erupted in a series of explosions, engulfing the vehicle in flames and forcing the rescuers outside."

Most buses that I have seen have their cargo area underneath the bus. This is a horrible place to store pressurized tanks which would probably mean they were stored horizontally, to boot. A lot more common sense and spending more money on your fragile patient's transportation would have accomplished a lot more for these alter-abled citizens. These victims were righteously evacuated to avoid drownings and this, but burning in hell after a 14 hour bus ride is horrible way for these citizens to die

Jah bless the vulnerable from the abuses of the financial, health or safety kind.