Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina has proved to be one of the most catastrophic storms in U.S. history. On Wednesday, August 31, President Bush declared major disaster areas in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is managing federal assistance to expedite response efforts and save lives. The storm's 145 mph winds and 25-foot storm surge brought devastation to an area stretching from just west of New Orleans to Pensacola, Florida. In all, there are 90,000 square miles under federal disaster declaration.

Faced with serious flooding in the wake of Katrina, all but one of New Orleans' hospitals were forced to evacuate patients. As of Thursday afternoon, more than 1,800 patients had been evacuated from New Orleans hospitals, but 3,000 remained. Many of the evacuees are going to National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) affiliated hospitals in other states. Our contact with our colleagues in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi indicates that their primary concern is securing food and drinking water, maintaining emergency power, getting fuel for ambulances and providing security in a very volatile situation where hospitals are the only institutions remaining in some communities. Many hospital workers and their families are now homeless and seeking refuge in the hospitals.

The AHA is working with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other national and state hospital associations to help coordinate medical relief efforts. The agency will mobilize up to 40 250-bed federal emergency shelters to stabilize and provide basic medical care to hospital and nursing home patients evacuated from the affected areas, as well as individuals with storm-related injuries. To set up these facilities, HHS will ask for staff and management assistance from the nation's hospitals and will be providing a specific list of needs.

The AHA is still waiting for details on the request from HHS for volunteer medical staffing for the 40 federal medical shelters that are being established on the periphery of the impacted area. HHS will be seeking hospitals willing to volunteer a team of 100 persons to staff a shelter for a two-week period. The types of personnel that would be required for these 100-person teams has not been released. Once HHS provides the list, the information will be posted at www.aha.org

The AHA has received calls from hospitals that have volunteered to provide teams, or parts of teams, and are ready to act now. Responding to a request from HHS, AHA will collect information on hospitals willing to volunteer. AHA will then turn that information over to HHS, which will contact the hospitals directly. To collect information, AHA has set up a web site, http://www.hospitalreliefefforts.org/hospitalreliefefforts/index.jsp, where hospitals can register their interest by answering an eight-question survey on available resources and transportation capacity. That web site will be used by AHA to disseminate information on requests for assistance throughout this emergency.

While HHS' preference is to identify organizations willing to commit a full 100-person team to a medical shelter that will inadvertently limit the number of hospitals able to volunteer. Many of you have expressed an interest in volunteering teams of a smaller size. We encourage your identification of resources to AHA, whatever the size. The AHA web site is designed to identify hospitals willing to provide all levels of help-whether a 100-person or a smaller group. The AHA, allied regional, state associations and the Department of Health (DOH) have begun holding regular coordinating conference calls. DOH staffs are prepared to work with us on any deployment efforts. DOH is preparing information on factors that must be considered by any hospital considering volunteering a team.

It is important to understand that the situation in the Gulf Region is extremely unstable and it may be some time before deployments will be staged and volunteers could be deployed on either a short-term or long-term basis.

AHA is considering setting up a hospital employee relief fund to provide monetary assistance to the health care workers who have lost so much in this disaster. The Council will provide details on how to contribute as soon as they become available.