HURRICANE KATRINA

The following article was written by BJ Corbitt and published in The Brunswick News on Sept. 15, 2005.

Photo by Ted Jackson/The Times Picayune

Hurricane Katrina victims needing medical treatment are finding it in Glynn County, as local medical professionals scramble to provide lost prescriptions and basic health needs for people displaced from the Gulf Coast.

To reach as many in need as possible, the Coastal Medical Access Program is holding a free clinic for hurricane victims from 2 to 8 p.m. today at the Glynn County Health Department on Fourth Street.

CMAP provides free health services to residents of Glynn and Camden counties who otherwise might not be able to afford such care.

Since Katrina battered parts of Mississippi and Alabama and led to devastating flooding in New Orleans two weeks ago, Lee Heery, a pediatrician who serves as CMAP's medical director, has treated five children seeking refuge locally through the American Red Cross.

She has also examined about 10 adults, providing brief clinical assessments before finding an appropriate specialist to treat them.

The children she treated have had fairly minor health problems, like colds and ear infections. Several of the adults she saw suffered from more serious issues, such as running out of important medications.

Heery has seen diabetics needing insulin and a cancer patient who needed to have the portable catheter she uses for chemotherapy flushed.

"There are little things like that that are big things to the people who are dealing with them," she said.

Heery will be one of the volunteers on staff at the free clinic for hurricane victims today.

The clinic was necessary due to the number of hurricane victims the local Red Cross has identified as needing treatment, according to CMAP Executive Director Frank Selgrath.

"It became apparent that there were sufficient patients that we should really have a special clinic day to see those Katrina patients," he said.

Selgrath said CMAP expects to treat at least 30 to 35 people during the free clinic. CMAP volunteers from Camden County also will be helping at the Brunswick clinic, the only one of its kind planned at this time.

"They really deserve a lot of praise and a lot of thanks for stepping up to the plate for these people on such short notice," Heery said.

Selgrath said the local American Red Cross deserves a lot of credit for bringing the patients to CMAP's attention, and for providing them with other services, such as help locating local shelter and work.

"We're only one small piece of the equation, the medical component," he said. "It's a big component, but still only one part of what they're doing." (Back to top)

Durango paper mill closing, 900 workers lose jobs
Associated Press

Workers at Durango-Georgia Paper in St. Marys cut off waste paper from a full roll Oct. 23, 2001. Durango-Georgia Paper Co., one of Camden County's largest employers since 1941, is shutting down all operations and putting 900 people out of work, company officials said Thursday. Company officials told employees Thursday that the plant would shut down in 60 days. AP

ST. MARYS GA-
Durango-Georgia Paper Co., one of Camden County's largest employers since 1941, is shutting down all operations and putting 900 people out of work.

''This plant has been part of our community for so many years, it's almost incomprehensible,'' St. Marys Mayor Deborah Hase said. ''This is going to have an impact on our community.''

Hase, whose husband works at the paper mill as an environmental engineer, said the city of St. Marys, a town of about 8,000 on the Georgia-Florida coast, will lose at least $600,000 a year in property and franchise taxes.

Company officials told employees Thursday that the plant would shut down in 60 days. Jim Johnson, a spokesman for Durango, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Donnie Rominger, a 22-year maintenance worker at the mill, said he wasn't surprised when union officials told them the plant was closing. He said the mill was outdated and could not produce paper as cheaply as foreign producers.

''I don't know what I'll do,'' Rominger said. ''I don't want to leave the county, but I might have to.''

Woodbine Mayor Burford Clark, who retired from the mill after 43 years, described the announcement as ''a sad day for Camden County.'' He said timber and pulp businesses in southeast Georgia also will be hurt because they rely on Durango to purchase their products.

''It's just going to have a devastating effect,'' Clark said.

Mexico-based Durango Paper Co. purchased Gilman Paper Co. in December 1999, nearly two years after the former owner, Howard Gilman, died. At the time, Gilman Paper Co. was the largest privately owned paper mill in the United States.

After the purchase, Durango officials said they had no plans to lay off employees, but eventually hundreds of workers lost their jobs while the company struggled to keep the plant open. Fifty workers were laid off last month.

''This is, first and foremost, going to impact families,'' said Camden County Administrator Barry King. ''I'm worried about the people.''