Dave Miller, a registered nurse and the director of the emergency room at Baton Rouge's Summit Hospital, worked virtually nonstop from Sunday through Wednesday, breaking only twice—once for a two-hour nap and once to run home and turn on a generator when the power failed. Summit's waiting room was full of people who couldn't go home or be sent to shelters, which were already full. And the patients kept coming, from evacuated hospitals in New Orleans, from that city's shelters and its streets, and "from every place you can get them," says Miller.

Hospitals in cities near New Orleans are shouldering much of the burden of the injured and sick left in Hurricane Katrina's wake. As hospitals in New Orleans have been forced to close, patients have been streaming into Summit and other hospitals around the area. They're looking for treatment, medications, or just someone to help take care of them.

Injuries from broken glass or flying debris are common, though "a big majority of them are patients who have just run out of their medications," says Miller. People who have run out of cardiac medications are especially bad, he says. "It's getting into a crisis situation with some of them."

On Tuesday, Summit Hospital's ER saw 168 patients, more than twice their normal capacity. A four-hour wait was typical, says Miller. By Wednesday, the number of patients admitted had begun to decrease, but there was a new problem: There was nowhere for them to go after they had been treated. Summit was sending many of its discharged patients to Louisiana State University's Pete Maravich Assembly Center, where they had medical staff on hand, but that shelter filled up.

"We've seen 'em, treated 'em, and discharged 'em, but they don't have anywhere to go," says Miller. "We have a waiting room full of people trying to get shelter."

That prompted the hospital to set up an impromptu shelter for discharged patients. "Family members were taking care of them at home, and they don't have the means to take care of them now." The hospital had not planned to create a shelter, says Miller. But "there's really no other option at this point."

Despite the long hours, the morale of the staff has been good, Miller says, and people are volunteering to take extra shifts. Community members have come in to help with some of the nonmedical tasks. Still, some scenes are heartbreaking. On Wednesday, a husband came in with his wife, who is in the late stages of Alzheimer's disease.

"They had been sitting in water for the last three days," he says. The woman didn't know what was happening, and "the husband was with her. He's upset and cold. We were just trying to get him comfortable," says Miller. "You do the best you can. You do your assessment; you try to treat their symptoms."

Find out more: Go to USNews.com for more information on Hurricane Katrina.