The last information I have is that all of the buildings are empty.

The hospitals that are operating are filled to the brim. The emergency departments are clogged up with long queues that see a growing patient population.

It's such a great area, in terms of accessibility, people know where it is, ambulances can get there, so we want to preserve that geography.

Both of our main hospital buildings at Charity and University Hospitals are uninhabitable for health-care purposes. We don't believe it will ever be inhabitable again. We are forced to leave those buildings and start with a new footprint.

We are going to get this project out on the street.

What we're trying to avoid is having to move more than once.

Today represents really an historic joining of two public health systems.

We don't have that luxury, if you will.

We need funding to partially restore New Orleans.

Some of them are on the brink of unable to cope any longer.