Houston Response to Hurricane Katrina: Views from the Field

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Presenter

Mary desVignes-Kendrick, MD, MPH, FAAP, is professor of Management, Policy and Community Health and deputy director of the Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness at the University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston. Prior to this position she was the health authority and director of the City of Houston Department of Health and Human Services for twelve years. She is actively involved in public health issues at the local, state and national level and serves on a number of advisory boards, including the Advisory Committee to the CDC Director and the Advisory Boards of the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine and the Houston-Harris County Immunization Registry. She was most recently involved in the Center's Rapid Needs Assessments of Hurricane Katrina evacuees and will focus her discussion on the activities of the Center at Houston's largest shelters.

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Description

This online, interactive session will illustrate how the University of Texas Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Preparedness (the Center) mobilized a volunteer team to respond to Hurricane Katrina evacuees who were temporarily housed at the Houston Astrodome. The presentation will include an overview of the Center's role and activities in shelter preparedness and response. Specific approaches to conducting rapid needs assessments, including the transition from paper form to electronic data collection and the tradeoffs, will be discussed. The speaker will also compare shelter expectations with realities and offer observations and recommendations to improve public health disaster preparedness and response.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session participants will be able to:

• Compare pre- and post-Katrina preparedness and response expectations with on-the-ground realities
• Summarize the health problems encountered at the Katrina shelters
• List challenges, successes, and lessons learned in the Katrina shelters

Appropriate Audience

This session would be appropriate for the following audiences:

• Bioterrorism Coordinators
• Emergency Management and Preparedness Planners
• Epidemiologists
• Physicians
• Public Health Nurses
• Sanitarians
• Other public health department staff involved in disaster response
  

Slides and Related Resources

Mary desVignes-Kendrick's Slides
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