A Breakdown of How Hurricane Katrina Forever Changed Health Care Protocols

It has been been almost 20 years since Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans and claimed the lives of nearly 1,400 people. The hurricane left the health care system reeling and exposed possible flaws in protocols and infrastructure. In part two of an eight-part interview, MarkAlain Déry, DO, explains to DocWire News how Katrina changed US health care forever.

DWN: Take us back in time to 2005 and Hurricane Katrina. How did the storm’s devastation affect patient care and physician responsibility? Also, what long-term protocols were implemented in the wake of Katrina that are still being used today, and have they worked?

MD: In terms of long-term protocols, I think that a large part of it was that we changed the way [we operate]. For example, we don’t really have basements in New Orleans because we flood, but we do have first floors. And I think that, foolishly, some of the larger hospital systems placed a lot of generators on their first floors or on the mezzanines, and these were areas that flooded. Don’t put your heavy machinery in areas that flood. I think that was a very, very important lesson. And so, since Katrina, you have seen the shifting of these generators to higher floors, to areas that are least likely to flood.

In terms of physician and health care readiness, I think [of] keeping teams on board, that didn’t happen for Katrina. There was some form of teams that were done. They’re better established at this point. We actually come to the hospital. I, personally, come to the hospital with three to five days of provisions on my own that I can sustain myself on. The same with changes of clothes; just anything that I know that I will need for at least three to five days, assuming that another Katrina happens. I think it would be unwise to not assume another Katrina could happen. They talk about these once-in-100-year-storms that seem to be happening twice or three times a year. So, not assuming something like Katrina could happen again would be unwise.

We had a very, very large hurricane exactly 17 years to the date of Katrina. It was August 29th [2021]. It was Hurricane Ida. And it was right in the middle of the Delta pandemic, which was the deadliest pandemic that we had. And in fact, to myself, I would just refer to it as COVID-A. It was just the combination of both Delta COVID and Hurricane Ida.

I refer to [Hurricane Ida] as a Dry Katrina. We fortunately did not have the deaths that we saw with COVID, with Katrina, and certainly not with flooding. But one of the power towers that supplies power downstream to the entirety of New Orleans actually just slipped and fell right into the river. Whatever ground it was on had just disintegrated underneath this tower. And it just literally fell into the Mississippi. And it completely knocked out the entirety of power for New Orleans for several weeks. It was in the middle of summer. It was brutally, brutally hot. And I would say for about five to seven days there was no power in the city. And then slowly, power came back on.

And so, preparing yourself for issues regarding not having power I think is very important. I think a lot of people have since obtained small generators, ourselves included, that can at least power a little air conditioner, your refrigerator; not power the entirety of your house, but small portions of it, so that we can remain, at least comfortable and cool.

Certainly, the hospitals that I work at did fine during Ida. Obviously they never lost power, and if they did, it was a brief moment of power. So air conditioning, internet, hot coffee, really, quite frankly, in the morning, was important. You would surprise yourself with the things that you actually want in the morning when you’re, even if it’s hot outside, just having a cup of coffee, the ritual of making a cup of coffee is important. And these little generators and keeping cool will prevent a husband and wife from exchanging little candles that say, “Sorry for the things that I said to you while we didn’t have power,” because that did happen between my wife and I.

So, in all seriousness, I think we’re better prepared in terms of mentally going through it. I think people are better prepared with leaving. We saw that in Florida. We saw that there was a large exodus out of the state as Hurricane [Helene] was coming in.

But I think what’s important for us to talk about, and we could talk about this later, is that these hurricanes, as they happen more frequently, are going to disproportionately affect people who are on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale, people who are marginalized. Because, as we know from studies, Americans don’t have $400 as a reserve for an emergency. And if these happen regularly where you’re going to have to pay for gasoline to get out, you’re going to have to pay for hotels, you’re not going to be able to work, your job is being interrupted. This has significant financial impacts, as well. So, I think that that is something that’s important for planners to consider, as well, moving forward.

But I think what we’ve done better, I think we’re certainly more prepared as a result of Katrina, and I certainly hope that people are able to learn from the lessons that we learned.