Post by Zack Fradella on Jan 5, 2008 10:53:10 GMT -6
Freeze kills two homeless people in city
by The Times-Picayune
Friday January 04, 2008, 9:02 PM
From staff reports
An Algiers resident took a blanket to a woman who'd been sleeping on benches along a bicycle path under the Crescent City Connection and found her dead, one of two hypothermia deaths of homeless people during Thursday morning's freeze, the Orleans Parish coroner's office said Friday.
Janice Collins, 48, was found dead Thursday about 5:30 a.m. at Mardi Gras Boulevard and Evergreen Street, several blocks from the Mississippi River. The woman who took a blanket to Collins found her unmoving on a sidewalk. Gagliano said the woman called for an ambulance, and medical technicians for the New Orleans Emergency Medical Service pronounced her dead at the scene.
Collins had been spending nights under the bridge at the path for about two weeks. Gagliano said Collins' relatives said they had asked her to stay with them, but she refused.
About two hours later, Michael Przesmycki, 54, was found dead in a parking lot in front of an abandoned strip mall at 7011 Read Blvd. Przesmycki had been living behind the mall, Gagliano said.
EMS medical technicians responded to a call of a "man down" and found Przesmycki. He too was pronounced dead at the scene. Przesmycki was originally from Michigan, but lived in New Orleans for years. He had been a street person for years, Gagliano said.
The temperatures of the bodies were taken as they reached to coroner's office and were judged consistent with hypothermia, Gagliano said.
Low temperatures in New Orleans Thursday morning were about 28 degrees, said Fred Zeigler, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Slidell.
by The Times-Picayune
Friday January 04, 2008, 9:02 PM
From staff reports
An Algiers resident took a blanket to a woman who'd been sleeping on benches along a bicycle path under the Crescent City Connection and found her dead, one of two hypothermia deaths of homeless people during Thursday morning's freeze, the Orleans Parish coroner's office said Friday.
Janice Collins, 48, was found dead Thursday about 5:30 a.m. at Mardi Gras Boulevard and Evergreen Street, several blocks from the Mississippi River. The woman who took a blanket to Collins found her unmoving on a sidewalk. Gagliano said the woman called for an ambulance, and medical technicians for the New Orleans Emergency Medical Service pronounced her dead at the scene.
Collins had been spending nights under the bridge at the path for about two weeks. Gagliano said Collins' relatives said they had asked her to stay with them, but she refused.
About two hours later, Michael Przesmycki, 54, was found dead in a parking lot in front of an abandoned strip mall at 7011 Read Blvd. Przesmycki had been living behind the mall, Gagliano said.
EMS medical technicians responded to a call of a "man down" and found Przesmycki. He too was pronounced dead at the scene. Przesmycki was originally from Michigan, but lived in New Orleans for years. He had been a street person for years, Gagliano said.
The temperatures of the bodies were taken as they reached to coroner's office and were judged consistent with hypothermia, Gagliano said.
Low temperatures in New Orleans Thursday morning were about 28 degrees, said Fred Zeigler, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Slidell.
