9/18/05 T.O. PARAMEDICS RESCUE BRAVE U.S. COMRADE
LEFT WITH JUST A TANK TOP AND SHORTS, JANIE FULLER SAVED NEW ORLEANS CASUALTIES
BY VIVIAN SONG, TORONTO SUN
Fuller, a paramedic from Arcadian Ambulance Services, was lucky to get three hours of sleep a day, executing dangerous rescue missions for those who were on the brink of death immediately after Katrina pummelled the Gulf Coast.

9/18/05 Hospital's will to survive grew with floodwaters
Workers trapped at Charity for five days managed to keep most of their patients alive
By TONY FREEMANTLE, Houston Chronicle
They reached CNN, which broadcast the interview live on its Web site. It was seen by the owner of an air-ambulance service. The man called deBoisblanc and said he had four helicopters on the way and that if the doctor could get four of the sickest patients to a helipad, he would evacuate them.

9/17/05 Evacuating babies required ingenuity
Jan Risher, The Advertiser
Mark Creswell remembers throwing tuna cans and water bottles at the people clamoring at the helicopter.
"We just started chunking whatever we had," said Mark, who spent nine days hopping from hospital roof to hospital roof as the eyes and ears of Acadian Ambulance's efforts to evacuate New Orleans area hospitals in the days after Katrina.

9/17/05 Going (Down) by the Book
By JOHN TIERNEY, The New York Times
NEW ORLEANS - When President Bush spoke from Jackson Square on Thursday night, across the Mississippi River a few men sitting next to a trailer watched him on a television powered by a generator.
They listened respectfully, but they were not exactly dazzled.

9/16/05 Canadian EMS personnel launch "Medics Care Fund" to raise money for American EMS staff affected by Hurricane Katrina
Canada News Wire
Acadian Ambulance of Louisiana reports "over 50 Paramedics and their families are now homeless and at least 220 Paramedics and their families are now displaced as a result of the destruction."

9/16/05 Haunting Memories
Medic copes with loss at 'Dome
Jan Risher, The Advertiser
Editor's note: Acadian Ambulance employees, along with their families and friends, found themselves at the center of a desperate rescue mission in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This is the sixth in a series sharing their stories.
Acadian Ambulance medic Billy Vincent now knows the real meaning of all four colors on a triage tag. Billy spent nearly four days in the Superdome. Green is considered walking wounded. Determining the green patients was easy. "If they got there, we would say, anybody who can get up and come see me," Billy said. "They would start walking toward me and we would send them to the general population of the Superdome."

9/15/05 Haunting Memories
Patients Ferried to SafetyJan Risher, The Advertiser
Editor's note: Acadian Ambulance employees, along with their families and friends, found themselves at the center of a desperate rescue mission in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This is the fifth in a series sharing their stories.
Bill Vidacovich was a man on a mission, but he needed a crew to help him get the job done. So, within hours of Hurricane Katrina passing through New Orleans , he took his 18-year-old son, Jeffrey, his brother Robert and his brother-in-law Jimmy Criller and left his Lafayette home for the city.

9/14/05 Heeding the Call
Paramedics from around the country arrive in Lafayette and Louisiana .
By Nathan Stubbs , The Independent, Lafayette
Paramedics Toby Myers and Mike Howard regularly deal with tragedies in their hometown of Galesburg , Ill. But nothing they had seen on their jobs matched the sense of urgency that came across their television screens in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. As trained emergency responders for the last decade, Howard says the need to be at the scene was a natural response.

9/14/05 Haunting Memories
Acadian offers stability in time of crisis
Jan Risher, The Advertiser
Editor's note: Acadian Ambulance employees, along with their families and friends, found themselves at the center of a desperate rescue mission in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This is the fourth in a series sharing their stories . Ray Bias remembers how the evacuees started preaching and praying in the Superdome. People were recognizing the dire straits they were in and were turning to their Maker. Ray spent 81 hours in the Superdome before, during and after Hurricane Katrina.

9/13/05 Haunting Memories
Chapter 3: Medics fight floodwaters to save patients
Jan Risher, The Advertiser
Editor's note: Acadian Ambulance employees, along with their families and friends, found themselves at the center of a desperate rescue mission in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This is the third in a series sharing their stories . The helicopters were swarming. With New Orleans and its hospitals flooding, the only way for patients to get out was by air or boat. Helicopters were coming from everywhere to help. Acadian Ambulance pilots and volunteers were on the scene.

9/12/05 Katrina system failure: The mayor
Did Ray Nagin do everything he could to save his city?
By AMANDA RIPLEY, CNN, Time Magazine
Richard Zuschlag, head of Acadian Ambulance, the largest ambulance transport company in southern Louisiana , moved his dispatch center to the outskirts of New Orleans , where it became the only communications network in the early hours of the disaster.
Then, although Zuschlag's staff is not trained to do triage, he sent 10 ambulance medics to the Superdome while his 40 ambulances and seven helicopters served as the initial rescue force in the city. For 40 hours, his medics were the only treatment unit there. Zuschlag tells TIME he ran into plenty of roadblocks, but he barreled through them.  "The top dogs [at FEMA] say go ahead, but lower down, people in the field want paperwork," he says. "I am gambling a bit, but I am saving lives. If I get sued, fine."

9/12/05 Choppers fly to rescue, delivering food, help
By Roger Yu, USA TODAY
Immediately after the hurricane, Lafayette, La.-based Acadian Ambulance Service dispatched all seven of its helicopters to rescue patients trapped in New Orleans-area hospitals, delivering them to ambulances five miles away. Other manufacturers and charter companies sent 20 more to help with the task, says Richard Zuschlag, Acadian's CEO.

9/12/05 In The Ruins, Angels Of Mercy
US News & World Report
Without the barest necessities, doctors and nurses struggle to keep hurricane victims alive
"When the crowds tried to take the ambulances away from us, we just abandoned the ambulances and locked them up," says Richard Zuschlag, chief executive officer of Acadian Ambulance Service in Lafayette , La.

9/11/05 Haunting memories
Chapter 1: Disaster in the 'Dome
Jan Risher, The Advertiser
Editor's note: Acadian Ambulance employees, along with their families and friends, found themselves at the center of a desperate rescue mission in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This is the first in a series sharing their stories.
Dr. Ross Judice still sees the faces of the elderly and small children in the Superdome in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

9/11/05 Amid Busy Signals, Hopes Rested on Ambulance Firm That Could Still Communicate
By GARDINER HARRIS, The New York Times
The day after Hurricane Katrina struck, Richard Zuschlag might have been one of the few people who knew the extent of the catastrophe that hit southern Louisiana . But he could not reach anyone in Baton Rouge to tell them.

9/8/05 Hold the blame, push for reasons, praise the heroes
The Advertiser
... Acadian Ambulance Service, with its long-standing mass casualty response plan, was possibly the most prepared of all agencies. Its ambulances and helicopters were deployed quickly and efficiently. A leadership role in evacuating hospitals and nursing homes was performed with practiced skill, despite the danger of gunfire from thugs, an attempt by out-of-control gangsters to overturn a rescue boat, and the theft of essential equipment.

9/7/05 In Nursing Home, a Fight Lost to Rising Waters
By GARDINER HARRIS, The New York Times
Janie Fuller, an Acadian paramedic, helped deliver a baby in the town jail and then managed to get a helicopter to evacuate mother and child. Ms. Fuller got another woman out who seemed to be suffering internal bleeding by commandeering an air boat and then a pickup truck to get her to a landing zone for a National Guard helicopter.

9/6/05 Area roadways cleared of debris
The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Department in Hammond worked around the clock to aid the victim's of Hurricane Katrina.

9/6/05 FEMA to meet with local officials
WWL-TV - St. Bernard
Two Acadian Ambulance Service ambulances arrived today with several EMTs and medical supplies in St. Bernard.

9/6/05 A nation tries to absorb exodus of the 400,000
The Sunday Times - World
...“These mothers were just giving my medics their little day-old babies,” said Richard Zuschlag, head of the local ambulance service. “They were looking at us with fear and horror on their faces. We would put four of them in an incubator and just fly them out...

9/5/05 Helpers from area headed to Gulf Coast
By EVAN BEVINS and JESS MANCINI
PARKERSBURG - Members from the local Salvation Army, the Wood County Sheriff's Department and General Ambulance in Vienna are being deployed to the Gulf Coast for Hurricane Katrina relief. The Salvation Army and the deputy sheriffs will leave in the next two days while members of the General Ambulance squad from Vienna left Friday.

9/5/05 Hospital at LSU faces shutdown if volunteers flee
Doctors seeing more critical patients
By JESSICA FENDER and SCOTT DYER Advocate staff writers
Nobody's even guessing when helicopters and ambulances will stop delivering thousands of sick or injured evacuees from disaster areas to LSU's Pete Maravich Assembly Center .

9/5/05 Sick, elderly crowd into airport
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (subscription) - Little Rock , AR , USA
... major hub for treating and sorting patients affected by Monday's hurricane, said Richard Pellerin, a field training officer with Acadian Ambulance Service Inc ...

9/5/05 After Failures, Government Officials Play Blame Game
New York Times - United States
... Dr. Ross Judice, chief medical officer for a large ambulance company, recounted how on Tuesday, unable to find out when helicopters would land to pick up critically ill patients at the Superdome...

9/4/05 "Mr. Mayor Of New Orleans, you are no Mayor Giuliani"
The Conservative Voice - USA
... a military helicopter. Richard Zuschlag, chief of Acadian Ambulance , said it was too dangerous for his pilots. ". "The military, which ...

9/4/05 Rescuers battle chaos and confusion
BBC News - UK
... For Mr Cramer, flight co-ordinator at Acadian Ambulance Service's air operations base, the misunderstanding is the latest hiccup in a very long day. ...

9/3/05 Exhausted refugees arrive by Amtrak
The Advertiser - Beverly Corbell
While his new friend Felicia Hendricks sat in a chair by the railroad tracks and breathed through an inhaler, Philip Harvey bit into sandwich he'd just been given by a Salvation Army.

9/3/05 Troops turn the tide
Death, disease still a threat as downtown clears
By James Janega and Angela Rozas, Chicago Tribune
Medical personnel successfully airlifted hundreds of critically ill patients from a triage unit set up inside a Delta Air Lines terminal at the New Orleans International Airport , and fewer than 200 patients remained, officials said.
By late Friday, all major hospitals in New Orleans had been evacuated, said Richard Zuschlag, chief executive officer of Acadian Ambulance Service, the largest private ambulance company in Louisiana .

9/3/05 Medical workers praised for 'real heroism'
Amid horrible conditions, a desperate struggle to keep people alive
MSNBC By Dafna Linzer and Peter Slevin, The Washington Post
Rep. Charles W. Boustany Jr. (R-La.) said he spent hours on the phone yesterday at Acadian's headquarters in nearby Lafayette pleading with the Pentagon to send more C-130s. By evening, after a short break to tour a center for storm victims with first lady Laura Bush, he still had not received an answer.

9/3/05 STORM AND CRISIS: THE HOSPITALS; Grim Triage for Ailing and Dying At a Makeshift Airport Hospital
By FELICITY BARRINGER AND DONALD G. MCNEIL JR.; FELICITY BARRINGER REPORTED FROM KENNER , LA. , FOR THIS ARTICLE, AND DONALD G. MCNEIL JR. FROM NEW YORK . JAMES DAO CONTRIBUTED REPORTING FROM NEW ORLEANS , AND REED ABELSON AND JENNIFER 8. LEE FROM NEW YORK . (NYT) The New York Times
Early on Friday morning, the scene at the airport looked ''extremely desperate'' in the eyes of Dr. Ross Judice, medical director for Acadian Ambulance Service, which even before Hurricane Katrina landed had contracts to evacuate many private hospitals. Richard Zuschlag, the president of Acadian Ambulance, described a hellish week for his helicopter and ambulance crews from his command center in Lafayette . Mr. Zuschlag said he had begged the governor, senators, Pentagon and FEMA officials for more help as the crisis deepened..

9/2/05 Most troubled New Orleans hospital finally gets help
The Associated Press, USA
Richard Zuschlag, the ambulance company's president, said the military was handling the evacuation of Charity and other hospitals in the flooded downtown.

9/2/05 Evacuation of beset hospitals resumes
Minneapolis Star Tribune - MN, USA
... patients. "We moved all of the babies out of Charity this morning,'' said Keith Simon, spokesman for Acadian Ambulance Service Inc. ...

9/2/05 Superdome evacuations enter second day
Minneapolis Star Tribune - MN, USA
... at a military helicopter. Richard Zuschlag, chief of Acadian Ambulance , said it was too dangerous for his pilots. A fire erupted ...

9/1/05 Mayhem hampering hospital evacuations
CNN.com
A private ambulance service says it is being hindered in its efforts to evacuate patients from New Orleans hospitals by the lawlessness in the city and appealed to President Bush to activate the military.

9/1/05 New Orleans Doctors Plead for Help
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, The Associated Press
The Washington Post
Doctors at two desperately crippled hospitals in New Orleans called The Associated Press Thursday morning pleading for rescue, saying they were nearly out of food and power and had been forced to move patients to higher floors to escape looters.

9/1/05 Rescuers rely on makeshift communications
Police voices crowd single channel, satellite phones flown in
The Associated Press
...And a local sheriff, Sid Hebert of Iberia Parish, helped keep an ambulance company handling medical evacuations across southern Louisiana running by loaning it a portable command center.

9/1/05 Two New Orleans hospitals plead for help
Other hospitals see gunfire, run out of medication
The Associated Press
...Zuschlag said 65 patients brought to the roof of another city hospital, Touro Infirmary, for evacuation Wednesday night spent the night there. The hospital's generator and backup generator had failed, and doctors decided it was safer to keep everyone on the roof than carry fragile patients back downstairs.

8/31/05 After Escaping New Orleans , a Long Wait
By KIMBERLY SOLET and FELICITY BARRINGER, New York Times
At the edge of Interstate 10, nobody - not the National Guard troops keeping order nearby nor the Acadian Ambulance workers ushering the injured to area hospitals by the dozens - could answer the insistent questions about the absence of transportation.

8/31/05 Victims trapped as rising water 'bursts' into homes
2theadvocate.com - Baton Rouge
By 5 p.m., the Causeway site had helped evacuate 70 people by ambulance to a shelter and at least 550 people by school buses and tour buses that went to a shelter in Thibodaux , said Jimmy Phares, paramedic field supervisor for Acadian Ambulance and incident commander. He said 40 ambulances and seven helicopters were dedicated to that one site.