In the days after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, survivors began showing up in Pensacola, some with little more than the clothes they were wearing when the storm surge came ashore and wiped out entire communities.

Still recovering from Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis, which struck less than a year apart, Pensacola opened its arms to its struggling neighbors from the west. A steady stream of patients beaten down by Katrina showed up at the Health & Hope Clinic, a free clinic established by the Pensacola Bay Baptist Association and supported by volunteer physicians.

Most of those with chronic conditions had run out of their medications, said Dr. Paul McLeod, dean of the Pensacola campus and a Red Cross volunteer.

McLeod, as well as faculty members Dr. Donna Jacobi and Dr. Jennifer Miley and third-year medical student Shani-Kay Chambers, saw patients at the clinic for several days in the weeks following the storm.

"Some have abdominal cramps and diarrhea likely caused by water contaminated with raw sewage," McLeod said. "Also, patients swallowed and aspirated water causing coughing and bronchitis-like symptoms."

McLeod said many people who left ahead of the storm took with them only enough of their chronic medications for a day or two, underestimating the potential devastation.

"In many cases the drug store they use has been destroyed along with their records,” McLeod said. "We have seen diabetic patients with very high blood sugars and no meds, nor any way to check their sugar levels since they have no strips for their machines. Blood pressures are out of control. Patients with asthma have no meds."

The good news, he said, is that the local communities and the American Red Cross are doing whatever it takes to meet the needs.

"We have a local pharmacist filling scores of prescriptions for these patients using his own inventory without knowing how or when he will be reimbursed," he said. "The patients are very grateful that someone cares enough to do this for them."