When the Lights Went Out

"Through Hell and High Water" by Jane O. Hansen of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reads like a novel. In today's first chapter she introduces us to four characters we can care deeply about: two seriously ill young men, Hunter Reeves and Preston Johnson, and their mothers, who grow close as they keep a close bedside watch over their sons. She shows us the setting: Charity Hospital for poor patients and Tulane University Hospital and Clinic for wealthier ones, across the street from each other in New Orleans. And she starts the plot racing as Hurricane Katrina bears down on the city and the two hospitals lose power. Hansen's narrative power and insightful reporting promise to give us a powerful story about heroism and despair as patients, their families, doctors and nurses struggle to survive through Katrina's wrath.
www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/twohospitals/