THIBODAUX, La. – After working uncomplaining 12-hour shifts for seven days straight at a special health care shelter for victims of Hurricane Katrina, certified nursing assistant Laurie Smith finally got teary Tuesday evening as she prepared to head back home to Maine.

“I want everyone to understand what strength these people have,” Smith said during an interview in a converted lecture hall at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, about 60 miles west of New Orleans.

A red brick building on campus houses the shelter where Smith was one of five health care aides and technicians from Maine working this week.

Though the lecture hall was quiet, confusion reigned outside its doors as shelter staff, state officials, parish officials, Red Cross organizers and others prepared for the evacuation of the entire facility in advance of Hurricane Rita’s anticipated landfall later this week.

“I have met some of the strongest people here in this shelter. They’ve lost everything, but they’re still thinking of others,” Smith said, wiping her eyes. “One lady gave me a little candle last night and said she appreciated so much what I’ve done here. That candle should have gone with her to help her set up her next home.”

Along with Paul Banville and Debbie Luce, Smith is employed by Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Jacqueline Lundevall-Royer works for Northeast Health in Rockport, and Joann Scanlon works at Goodall Hospital in Sanford. A sixth caregiver, emergency medical technician Renee Grover of the midcoast, was with the group initially, but returned early to Maine because of a family health emergency.

Most of the health providers at the Thibodaux shelter were lodged with local families. After some initial confusion – “Nobody knew we were coming,” Luce said – the Maine contingent was provided with a self-contained camper in the yard of a nearby home. While three of them worked the day shift, the other three slept and relaxed. Then they’d swap.

Their host family was “wonderful,” all five agreed. “The Southern hospitality down here is just incredible,” Luce said.

Though they were provided with copious amounts of food and supplies by Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, they ate most meals at the shelter, where an area church served up three squares a day, and other groups donated snacks and treats.

Working with dozens of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health care providers from around the country, the Mainers provided much of the day-to-day, hands-on care needed by the estimated 110 patients at the shelter, all of whom were identified as having significant health care needs.

In a makeshift hospital set up in second-floor classrooms, some patients were treated for chronic conditions such as diabetes, emphysema and heart disease. Others had injuries related to the hurricane, such as lacerations or skin rashes. Some use wheelchairs because of spinal cord injuries or diseases such as multiple sclerosis. A few had to travel miles each day by ambulance to undergo renal dialysis at a facility in another area. And some had mild mental retardation or psychiatric disorders.

In addition to their health concerns, many at the shelter had harrowing stories to tell about their encounters with Katrina.

Sitting in her wheelchair in the muggy afternoon heat outside the air-conditioned shelter, Theresa Smith, 68, said a boat rescued her off her family’s second floor porch in New Orleans’ flooded Gentilly neighborhood the day after the levees broke.

“They left me at a dry spot and I waited there three hours. Then a helicopter came and brought me here. I’ve been here about three weeks now,” Smith said. She was recently joined by her two granddaughters, 18-year-old Shade and 9-year-old Jamenisha. The girls originally were sheltered with their mother at Louisiana’s Superdome and were later bused to a shelter in Texas. They returned by bus this week to assist their frail grandmother.

Smith, who suffers from diabetes and congestive heart failure, said the care she received at the Thibodaux shelter was excellent. “I hate to leave this place now,” she said. “These people have all been very kind. I will never forget their kindness.”

All of the evacuees at the shelter, including Smith, were preparing Tuesday evening to be moved farther inland to shelters in Baton Rouge or Alexandria. The sickest patients had already been taken out by ambulance, and buses were expected to transport most of the others.

Smith and her granddaughters, along with about 10 other patients in wheelchairs, would spend one more night at the Thibodaux facility before leaving Wednesday for Baton Rouge, about 60 miles away.

The evacuation, traumatic enough for medically compromised storm survivors, was confounded by conflicting orders from state, federal and local government offices, the National Guard and the Red Cross.

As testy officials met in the evening to sort out which patients were going where and by whose order, patients whose belongings had been packed since early morning waited with resignation for buses that had been expected at noon.

When the buses arrived at about 6:30 patients were assisted aboard, along with food, medication, and medical supplies.

The departure was marked with emotional farewells, souvenir snapshots and group hugs. The loaded buses pulled out about 7:30, headed for the shelter in Alexandria, more than 200 miles northwest of Thibodaux.

Though the Maine group was leaving, a fresh contingent of nurses and doctors had arrived from Indiana and would accompany the patients to their next shelter. Members of the Los Angeles National Disaster Medical Service, which has staffed the Thibodaux shelter since it opened, would stay on indefinitely to provide care through an outpatient clinic set up for hurricane survivors.

The Mainers said they were looking forward to getting home but that, in spite of their evident exhaustion, they would gladly stay on longer or return for a second assignment if given the opportunity.

“I’m really ready to get home and recharge,” said Banville. “And then I’ll be ready to come back.”

Readers: If you would like to communicate with BDN reporter Meg Haskell and photographer Gabor Degre as they report on Katrina’s aftermath from the Gulf Coast, look for their blog at bangordailynews.com.