Part II Memorial Hospital: Remembering Hurricane Katrina

This was a tragedy for Mississippi because all the beautiful Annabel Homes were destroyed and they are not rebuilding. However, lessons are learned from every opportunity that presents itself to us. Lessons of love were learned and it did not matter race, color, or creed; we all rescued each other and helped in whatever way was possible.
      --Susan Kalister, former Director of ES, Memorial Hospital, Gulfport /
      now at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, CA

Preparedness Is Everything

Memorial Hospital has an in-depth Disaster plan in place that has been honed over the years. Each department has a hurricane preparation and recovery team that is identified prior to the hurricane season. These people leave their families behind and report to the hospital, prepared to weather the storm as an organization. With Hurricane Katrina, they were able to implement the plan 3 days ahead of landfall. “We start watching storms as soon as they hit the Atlantic and start preparing once they are named,” explained Dir of Hospitality Robert Cobb.  The hospital made sure there was adequate staffing, food, and medical supplies, and was able to accommodate employees and evacuees when they had “nowhere to go.”

Engineering, maintenance, and environmental staff were predeployed throughout the building with supplies, and began repairs and clean-up before the storm had even abated. Patients were relocated to safer hallways as over 400 windows blew out and rain gushed in.  Roofing was torn from the hospital’s upper floors and trees fell into exterior walls.  Staff worked to keep the hospital’s seven generators going.

There Were No Clocks

Diane Gallagher, VP of Marketing and Planning, recalled that all departments pitched in on anything that needed to be done, working despite the undercurrent of anxiety caused by lack of information.

It was as if there were no clocks – we operated 24 hours/day.  All communications were down. Roads were impassable. The only way we found out what was happening out there was when someone came in our doors and brought us news.  That’s how we found out if our houses were still standing or what was happening to other towns and hospitals. Many were worried about families and children.  When one person got word on the safety of their family, everyone would celebrate.
     --Diane Gallagher

As the community shifted into recovery efforts, the HR department did a great job of keeping people working at the hospital, helping them address their own personal needs conveniently right on site.  According to HR Director Cathy Wood, they were able to help with the necessities:

• Cash – there were no ATMs and you couldn’t use a credit card.  The hospital cashed checks and made advances on paychecks. 
• Pharmaceuticals – there were no operating drug stores.  The hospital filled prescriptions for all employees and the community in the first days after the hurricane. Memorial filled over 5,000 prescriptions free of charge. 
• Gas – all of the gas stations were destroyed.  Once they were able to get back home, employees needed gas to come in to work. The hospital obtained a supply of gasoline for its employees and physicians. 
• Government & other helping organizations and forms – no one had time to find the temporary offices and fill out the forms.  The hospital brought the organizations onsite for the employees.
• Laundry – they were there for 14 days with one change of clothes.  The hospital set up washers and dryers for employee use – and it was a new gathering place.
• The Village – for 9 days, there were lots of employees and discharged patients that had nowhere to go.  The hospital created “The Village,” a community within that provided accommodations, clothing, water, food, immunizations, and medication.

Eventually, as the water receded and the damages were addressed, people made their way back home – but over 400 employees had lost everything. “But everyone lost something,” commented Gallagher.

Getting Back to “Normal”

When asked how they endured the following hurricane season, Gallagher, Cobb, and Kalister groaned. “There was a lot of anxiety,” they admitted. But on November 30, 2006, when Memorial Hospital was able to celebrate a “No Storm” year, there was tangible relief. No one would have thought it possible to have a sense of humor about how they had been living, but amazingly, they used blue tarps for tablecloths, perhaps as a reminder of what they’d been spared. 

Life was still not back to normal then, and still isn’t today.  Though the physical plant has been restored, emotions and nerves are still healing. “Lots of people still haven’t rebuilt their homes because of insurance or other more personal problems,” Cobb explained. “Things won’t be back to ‘normal’ for another 5-10 years!”  For the most part, services are back in place, but some aren’t coming back.  Until recently, there were no gas stations on the beach – now just 1 or 2 have been set up.  Among the string of little towns, there was a recent celebration for a new McDonald’s – the first fast food restaurant to return to the area.

Thanks to  Janet Stuart, Marketing Manager, Community & Corporate Relations Department, for the use of their articles in researching this Celebrations article. Thanks to Memorial Hospital for use of their video “Heroes of Katrina.”  And thanks to Bonnie Blackledge of TransMedia Creative and Joseph Kalister for photographs.