We couldn't save hundreds of the poor

But thank the lawdy-lawd we saved the embryos!

Their embryos, along with those belonging to hundreds of other couples, were kept at the Fertility Institute's laboratory at the hospital. Two days before Katrina hit on Aug. 29, 2005, the clinic took steps to protect the embryos by topping off all its tanks with liquid nitrogen and moving them to the third floor.

But Katrina's eight feet of water knocked out the electricity, and the temperature climbed. A freshly topped-off tank is safe for three to four weeks in an air-conditioned room, but "I'm sure the temperature was over 100 degrees in that hospital," Dr. Belinda "Sissy" Sartor, a fertility expert for the institute.

Fearing the embryos would be ruined, she contacted a state lawmaker, who called Gov. Kathleen Blanco, and on Sept. 11, Illinois officers on loan to Louisiana set out in National Guard trucks, towing flat-bottomed boats.

A flat surface was essential: The 35- and 40-liter nitrogen tanks, which weigh 75 and 90 pounds, had to stay upright. If one tipped over, the nitrogen would spill.

How many poor people drowned so those frozen embryos could be saved?