Center Response: Hurricane Katrina

Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response collaborated with the American Red Cross to ensure the health and safety of the more than 200,000 persons in shelters. Within days of the storm, CRDR and the Red Cross deployed teams of public health professionals, lead by CRDR faculty Tom Kirsch and Courtland Robinson to the Gulf Coast to conduct rapid assessments of the health and public health needs in the Red Cross shelters.

Over the course of the next six weeks, CRDR worked closely with the National Disaster Medical Service, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States Public Health Service and other universities to improve the lives of the sheltered populations. More than 60 public health experts from Hopkins and around the country were deployed to the affected areas, where they organized the efforts of over 200 other health-related volunteers. Specific projects included:

• Performing a rapid survey of health and public health needs
• Establishing a telephone-based infectious disease surveillance system in shelters in Mississippi
• Conducting a complete health survey of shelters in Louisiana
• Ensuring the safe medical practices by volunteer physicians and nurses
• Conducting an education program for Red Cross volunteers to improve the health conditions in the shelters
• Educating people in shelters to improve hygiene and reduce the risk of disease spread

For their exceptional contributions, CRDR and its faculty were recognized in a special publication by the American Red Cross, “A Year of Healing—The American Red Cross Responds to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma”; in testimony during “Hurricane Katrina: Rebuilding Lives and Communities” before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; and in testimony during “Hurricane Katrina: Health Needs and Response,” before the Energy and Commerce subcommittees on Health and Oversight and Investigations of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Center Publication regarding Katrina

Millin M, Lenkins J, Kirsch T.  A Comparative Analysis of Two Extermanl Health Care Disaster Responses Following Hurricane Katrina.  Prehospital Emergency Care.  October/December 2006 10(4):451-456.