#Katrina10: The Power of Community

Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina's flood waters filled my city of New Orleans - as I watched helplessly from Alaska where I was on vacation. I remember vividly the chaos and confusion of trying to connect with family, neighbors and colleagues from afar with nothing more than a flip phone. At that time, I was on the faculty of the Tulane University School of Medicine and School of Public Health, where I conducted research, saw patients and oversaw the faculty and students of the general medicine section. After the flood, I was in charge of re-assembling my faculty and helping stand up the medical school, which was being temporarily relocated to Houston. An overhead view of the New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005. Photo Credit: HHS But my focus on the medical school quickly shifted when I saw the immediate need in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina had torn down our most essential institutions, from 9-1-1 to emergency rooms and hospitals. Eighty percent of my New Orleans was under water. A quarter of a million structures were flooded, electricity and plumbing systems were severely damaged and most care was being delivered by volunteer health care providers working from card tables, sometimes in tents with very limited supplies. The medical residents, or physicians-in-training, were looking to me for support and leadership in providing needed urgent services and in rebuilding health care in New Orleans. We all saw an opportunity to build someth...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news