April Fugere, a registered nurse, worked in the surgical intensive care unit at Charity Hospital in the heart of New Orleans. As floodwaters rose around the hospital starting on August 29, the patients and staff there found themselves in an increasingly desperate situation–without electricity, running short on food, water, and medicine, and unable to escape. Fugere had brought her two teenage children with her so they could ride out the hurricane together, and they were trapped in the hospital, too. U.S. News has been following her progress. Here, in her own words, is the story of their struggle to survive:

"We're afraid. And we want to get out of here."

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"We've been running out of everything. We had no clean linen to clean the patients with. Food was being rationed. We had to do manual ventilators because the emergency generators were flooded; then they brought us other generators.

"The stench is unbelievable. This is five days' worth of stench. We still have to urinate and defecate. We thought if we can just get the patients out of here. We were feeding the patients whatever we had: liquids, Resource, Boost. Some of them were on tube feeds, but we were running out of that, too. Fortunately, we got them out before we ran out of IV fluids. One coded last night, but we were able to get him going.

"We had patients with fevers; we didn't have ice. There was nothing we could do to cool them off, except for giving them Tylenol. It just lifted my heart so much to get the patients out of here. There were times that I was crying over my patients. They understood. They were really, really wonderful even though they were nervous as heck. Everyone just did great as far as how they dealt with it.

"We've got a generator and flashlights, but we've been running out of batteries. We can't call out. I have my two children here with me; they're 15 and 14. It's just been really, really hard. We've been hearing every day they're going to get the patients; we actually carried a ventilated patient down the stairs manually bagging, and then they said operations were shut for the night, so we had to carry him back up the stairs.

"For breakfast I had a Boost shake and half of a granola bar. Fortunately, we had water. They've been rationing out the water, but food is really scarce. I said to my kids, 'Here's a Boost and two handfuls of cereal; I don't know when more is coming.' They don't understand the reality. My daughter wants to call her friends; I said, 'Baby, you're not getting it. Things like you knew don't exist anymore.' There was a man in the Superdome that jumped. We heard reports that they're breaking into the hospital to steal the medicine. It's all from the local news, from people calling in.

"We're afraid. And we want to get out of here. This is just insane. They have to drop a whole bunch of people in here and install martial law. We're really afraid that they're going to charge us here. We fall apart and then pull ourselves together. There's a lot of tears. It's an ICU step-down unit. We're pretty used to critical care, but it was impossible to do drips; our batteries were running out. We couldn't do drip feeds; we had to do bolus feeds for the patients that could handle it. We were just praying every day that they would come. It's just been trying to get through every day without losing everybody. That's what scared us the most, that if we didn't get help, people would be dying.

"It's hot. We haven't had a bath in days. When I finally get out, I'm going to have a bath, have a good meal, and have a Southern Comfort and Coke. People could leave; nobody's holding 'em at gunpoint. But we've got water around the hospital; I don't want to go walking in that water. It's nasty, nasty, nasty, nasty. I know that there is a breach in the levee at the 17th Street canal. I live in Bellechase. They were trying to patch it up. After the storm, we had a little bit of water and it went away. We went for a walk around the hospital. When I woke up the next morning, it was flooded.

"The people who are left here in the city are the poorest of the poor. They had no way out. The only reason I'm here is that I had to come to work. If I wasn't on activation, I would have been gone. My mom is in Georgia; I talked to her yesterday. I said things are kind of bad, and we need help; call whomever you can. That's when I still had cellphone service.

"I was up at 4 this morning. I can't sleep. The kids slept on and off, but not well. My daughter's saying, 'I'm about to faint it's so hot in here.' This is scary. We want to get out of here. We want to get out of here."

A few hours after U.S. News talked to Fugere on Thursday, her sister called with an update. There are still patients in the hospital, and there's talk of moving patients from the emergency room to Fugere's unit. "She's really scared," says her sister. "They don't have any food; they don't have any water. The governor says on the radio that there aren't any snipers, but she hears people shooting outside."

"We don't know when we're going to get a chance to eat again"

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"We were elated last night, because we got all our patients out. At least from my unit, surgical intensive care. We had to find spine boards and carry them down several flights of stairs. There are still patients in the emergency department, and I think there are some in the psychiatric unit.

"And there are lots of patients who died. I don't even know how many. They are laying them out in a hospital stairwell, in body bags. They want to keep us from getting sick, so they are keeping them away from us.

"Two state troopers just walked through the halls, carrying big assault rifles and shouting. They said there was a plan to get us out–the 12 hospital staff remaining on my unit. Our patients are gone, so our work is done. They said they were going to bring in airboats to get us. There's about 4 feet of water around the hospital, so they can get boats to us.

"But we've heard all this before. Our hopes are constantly lifted and dashed. This morning the hospital had a big staff meeting and told us there was no plan to get staff out. It's incredible that we've come here to save lives, and they'd just leave us here.

"Right now some of us are talking about trying to make it out ourselves. We told that to one of the troopers, and he said, 'I'm not going to tell you what you can and can't do.' See, we've been told so many different things by people that we don't know whom to trust. They've told us before that we were getting help, and then nothing happened.

"So we don't know if it's better to stay here and wait for help or try to make it out on our own. It's gross and nasty here. We've had no running water for days. But outside, it seems very scary. People are getting attacked; people are getting killed.

"This morning, finally, they brought us some rations. Each of us got a bottle of water to drink and one of those small cereal boxes of Special K. And they also brought us a giant, industrial-size can of pineapples for everyone to share. My kids–my two kids are here with me–didn't want pineapple. But I told them, 'You have to eat. We don't know when we're going to get a chance to eat again.' "

"We're really traumatized. We felt deserted."

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"I am actually right now sitting by the pool [at the Chase Suite hotel in Baton Rouge, La.], tanning and relaxing! It's amazing.

"I don't know if I'm going to be able to come back to Charity. I just found out they're paying us through the 30th. For those of us that were there through the disaster, they really need to do more than that. We're really traumatized. We felt deserted. Whatever plans were in place didn't work. Starting with the backup generators. They do not belong in the basement in a city that's a mile below sea level.

"On Friday, I called my sister from the hospital and I couldn't stop crying, saying I'm going to die here. They're not going to get us out of here.

"Then Florida Fish and Wildlife showed up. They brought at least 30 airboats. They said they were going to keep coming back until they got everyone out. It wasn't the state that got us out. It wasn't FEMA. They told us that we were going to be sent to New Orleans International Airport with the patients, that it was a staging area, that that buses were waiting there to take us on to other places. I said that I would have to take my two kids, and they said then we'd have to go on our own. They were sending people to the Superdome. I'd heard about what was going on there. I didn't think we would make it.

"But then this guy put me, my two kids, on a helicopter with [several other nurses and] two patients, and we ended up at Lakeview Memorial Hospital in Covington. They had food for us there, they had buses. I met the CEO, he was so kind. By the grace of God, maybe it's because the kids are here, they got us to a good place.

"We kind of took matters into our own hands when we got to safety. My daughter's friend's mother had said, call her when we get out. She was in Baton Rouge. Her husband is in Egypt right now; they're from the air station there in Belle Chasse. We called her, and she came and picked us up in Covington Friday night. Can I tell you, she ran up to me and gave me a huge hug, and said, I am so happy to see you! My daughter and her friend ran and hugged each and said, 'We did it! We did it! We're together!'

"We're staying in the apartment of someone who also was deployed to Egypt. It's only temporary. They have been so wonderful to us, so wonderful. Please be sure to include her name, Heidi Kane. She has been a godsend to so many people. Denise is staying in [their apartment] with her friend, and my son is in the room with me, so the girls can spend as much time together as possible. We don't know what the future is going to hold.

"Three of our nurses ended up at the international airport, and there was no ride for them. They were basically told you can work, or you can sit and wait with everyone else. They hitched a ride with an ambulance driver who got them out.

"Right now, I don't feel like doing anything. I've got tons of leave. I've worked for 12 and a half going on 13 years. I don't know if they're going to let me take all that leave, but we're out of there. We're safe. My children are sunburned because of sitting by the pool. We're getting back to normal.

"We went to the store and got tortillas, cheese, sandwich meat, bread, milk, some chicken tenders because the kids like those, and some tomatoes. I love tomatoes, I eat a lot of fresh breads and vegetables. It's kind of nice to be able to able to eat like that again. I can't get my son's prescription filled; he has ADHD and he's on Concerta. The pharmacies won't give it without a prescription. I said to him, you might get a medication break not by choice. You just gotta learn to control yourself. If anybody can think of a better way, you let me know.

"And I'm feeling much better since I've heard from my boyfriend, Danny Rousselle. He called this morning at 3 a.m. He's been in the command center for Plaquemines Parish; his brother's the parish president. He went to my house; there was no flooding in the Belle Chasse area. There was a lot of other damage, structural and trees down. My house is livable. My roof is really leaking because some of the roof is pulled off, and my boyfriend says we need to get out there are rip up the rug because it's wet and it's really starting to stink. My two cats are still there, and they're fine, but he said one won't even come out from under the couch. He said, your babies need you! But they've got food and water, I set them up with feeders before I left. Danny said, 'I went to your room and got your towels so I could smell you. I'm sleeping with your towels because I miss you.'

"I was having my bouts of crying at night because I didn't know what's going on with him, but now I know and I'm feeling better today.

"They're talking about letting people in to Belle Chasse to get their belongings. My boyfriend said, why not send the kids up to their grandfather's in Colorado so they can start school, and you can help me get things together here. You don't have to work at Charity again. We'll get situated, and we can get the kids back maybe at the end of the school year or when they get the schools here up and running.

"I've talked to people at work, and I know that they're out and OK and they're getting set up. I'm talking to people in my neighborhood and I know that they got out. My neighbor across the street, my boyfriend is taking care of her dog, I called her today and she said, 'Oh, Buster's OK, that's great!' The whole area is barricaded. It's cement block to the right, cement block to the left, they're not letting anybody in. So their property's safe.

"Some people's cellphones are working; cellphone is mainly how we're communicating. My daughter's notebook that she brought to the hospital I've kind of confiscated, I've written down everything I need to keep track of there. We basically have nothing. Everything is at home.

"All I had when I left the hospital was a pair of scrubs, two pairs of shorts, and a tank top. Heidi said, come on, let's go to the Goodwill and get some clothes. I got name brand clothes, paid $22 and change, and I got clothes that would have cost over $100 in a store! I can access my ATM, and they have my bank right down the road.

"I took the kids to Dillard's. They have 80 percent off on swimwear right now. My son's swimsuit was $6, mine the bottoms were like $10 the top was like $11.50. My daughter–I got her bottoms for $10 and her tops for $10. I was able to use my debit card, which is good because I've only got three checks left. My suit is black with pink netting on it. The other choice was white with pink and brown polka dots, and when I tried this one on and came out of the room the girl said that's the one. And it's a bikini, too!

"I'm so overwhelmed by what's happened, everything that we've heard and seen. I can't listen to the news any more. I sleep from exhaustion but then I'm up at 2 or 3 in the morning.

"Last night I finally had my Southern Comfort. It was nice, I sat by the pool talking to Heidi, she had a lime cooler and I had my Southern Comfort and Coke. We were just relaxing. The kids were in the room, which is real close by.

"There are news people everywhere here. I ran into somebody from ABC News at Wal-Mart. He was asking me what's the best sunscreen to use? I said Bullfrog; it's waterproof and sweatproof.

"I was going to take my kids up to Colorado on the 12th, but now I think I will send them earlier and help get things back together at home and ready for them to come back. It's really not suitable for the kids to come back to yet. But it's there! I was going to miss my place. I liked where I live. I liked my street. I liked my neighborhood. I know now, no matter what, we're all survivors. And I know that wherever we are we'll get through it.

"Big hugs to all of my people who were there with me, all of my coworkers, I love 'em.

"Now we know: You need to be prepared. This is what your plans need to be. There are so many of us who can offer suggestions. Don't put the generators in the basement. Don't put food services and the morgue in the basement. They were able to move some of the food to the 6th floor. But they were carrying it up the stairs in the dark. We knew it was just a matter of time, disease would be setting in. It was like a huge cesspool. All those things you hadn't heard about in a long time, cholera, malaria, they'd be back.

"This is to FEMA: You need a three-pronged simultaneous approach for this. One is search and rescue anybody you can find. Two is get all the patients and nurses and doctors and staff out of the hospitals. That staff can be used elsewhere once they're freed up. Or pre-evacuate the critically ill patients because those are the ones that are least able to make it through. If you know something like this is happening and the hospitals aren't evacuated, they need to stock these places. Three is, immediately get the military in there and declare martial law and have the forces behind it to back it up. The National Guard was there, but not in force.

"But we all got through. And we all got out of there. There are some good endings. I'm still praying for those who need help out there and thanking God that I have it easier. And praying that it gets easier for them, too.

"Right now I'm spraying sunscreen on my son; even though he's sunburned he's still staying in the sun with me, it's the first time we've been able to be in the pool because we didn't have bathing suits. I'm getting ready to dive in and cool off now."

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