05-SEP-A-4
I RESPOND TO THE EXPANDING DISASTER ALONG THE GULF COAST OF LOUISIANA/MISSISSIPPI AS A VOLUNTEER
FROM MARYLAND’S EMERGENCY MEDICAL RESPONSE TEAM
From: "Jennifer Zucco" <JZUCCO.BPQA_PO.BPQA_DOM@dhmh.state.md.us>
To: "Jennifer Zucco" <JZUCCO.BPQA_PO.BPQA_DOM@dhmh.state.md.us>
Date: 8/30/2005 5:21:47 PM
Subject: Volunteers Desperately Needed in Louisiana!
Dear Emergency Preparedness Volunteers:
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is requesting physician volunteers for activation in Louisiana for a time frame of seven (7) days, in response to Hurricane Katrina. This is an activation through the State of Maryland, DHMH. Deployment of volunteers will begin within the next few days (we are currently unsure of the exact date). As volunteers, you will be providing assessment, triage and treatment in the community shelters with general populations as well as for the special medical needs population. We are requesting volunteers with experience in Internal Medicine, Critical Care, Emergency Room settings, Respiratory Care, and/or Surgery.
Please respond by Noon tomorrow, Wednesday, August 31, if you can commit to help the citizens of Louisiana for a time period of seven (7) days.
Please respond to this email or call 410‑764‑4762 and provide:
‑your name
‑license number
‑home phone
‑work phone
‑cell phone
‑pager number
Upon receipt of your RSVP you'll be contacted with logistics as they become available.
Thank you. Please read below for more information on this natural disaster, as cited from www.CNN.com:
"In all, authorities said at least 70 people had been killed in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana. Officials in Louisiana had not released an official death toll Tuesday morning, but New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said witnesses had seen bodies in the floodwaters."
"The rising water hindered rescues of dozens, perhaps hundreds of people in the city who are trapped in homes and other buildings. We probably have 80 percent of our city underwater, with some sections of our city, the water is as deep as 20 feet," Mayor Ray Nagin said Monday night.
New Orleans, most of which is below sea level, is bounded by Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. A two‑block‑long breach in a levee at the 17th Street Canal was letting water pour into downtown, Nagin said. Water 6‑feet deep surrounded Tulane Hospital as the facility moved its operations to upper floors and held off on a decision to evacuate. Nearby Charity Hospital, however, evacuated 90 patients by air.
"New Orleans also lacked drinkable tap water after a 50‑inch water main was severed during the storm, said Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Monday. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Michael Brown said the damage he saw was "sobering." "Right now we have two priorities ‑‑ saving lives and sustaining lives," Brown said."
"On Monday, water poured over another levee along the Industrial Canal, filling the Lower 9th Ward in the eastern part of the city with 8 to 10 feet of water. Rescuers took to the air and the water, eventually pulling out as many as 500 people, in some cases using axes to break through roofs and reach people in attic areas. Louisiana officials ‑‑ more than 24 hours after Katrina hit ‑‑ had not announced an initial death toll. Mayor Nagin said it would be "significant."
"The city of New Orleans is in a state of devastation," Nagin told WWL TV on Monday night. Katrina came ashore early Monday as a Category 4 hurricane, strafing New Orleans with 140 mph winds. New Orleans, a city of nearly half a million with a metropolitan area population of 1.3 million, was under a mandatory evacuation order issued Sunday. However, many people defied that order and remained in homes and shelters. Thousands were shielded from the storm in the city's Louisiana Superdome. Nagin said there would be no electricity in the city for four to six weeks. Natural gas leaks have been reported throughout town, he said."
Sincerely,
Jennifer Zucco
Emergency Preparedness Coordinator
Maryland Board of Physicians
4201 Patterson Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21215
Phone: 410‑764‑4762
Fax: 410‑358‑2252
jzucco@dhmh.state.md.us
OK, Thanks!
I had started into the large load of work for our ELDP sessions the Sep. 9--10 weekend, with one ear tuned to the radio, thinking, as I did at Christmas time when the tsunami hit, "You must be kidding about deaths in the hundreds--I know those coastal peoples in Asia and have seen them and worked with them--there cannot be less than hundreds of thousands." And now it is our own Gulf Coast, as they were reporting deaths in the fifties and strandings in the hundreds--right! I came in to work at 3:00 AM to clear the decks and move appointments.
You may be aware that I am just back from Eritrea and have not fully unpacked my medical kits. So much the better, since I am now on my way "out of here"--awaiting only the bulldozing of a military landing strip on the Louisiana coast. When I got to work I found what I had half expected from the Maryland Department of Health Emergency Preparedness Volunteers (attached) under the heading listed in the "Subject line" above. They are calling for surgeons with public health awareness and expertise in tropical medical contagion hazards, so I can hardly duck that description! I will do what I can to be back for our ELDP weekend.
Cheers!
GWG