142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

313089
Hurricane Katrina's impact on disaster preparedness in New Orleans: Where are we now?

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Wednesday, November 19, 2014 : 12:30 PM - 12:45 PM

Stephen Murphy, MPH , Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness, City of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
A major practice change can be seen in our attempts to become a more resilient city, which embraces FEMA’s “whole community approach to disasters” as well as PPD 8. In 2008, the entire city evacuated in advance of Hurricane Gustav, marking the single largest pre-storm evacuation in US history. This event, coupled with the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, instilled a preparedness mindset into not only the residents, but also businesses. As preparedness planning continued following the 2008 hurricane season, the re-entry aspect of a mandatory evacuation became critical as businesses began to adopt a powerful stance in their Business Continuity Planning. With NOHSEP providing a city-wide tiered re-entry plan as an accompanying piece of the CAEP, businesses had a voice and credentials to re-enter the city and reestablish operations prior to the residents returning. These partnerships spread into other areas and were no longer isolated to the evacuation strategy. As the critical partner needs became more apparent, which ultimately aligned directly with city economic recovery, broader partnerships were made. The Cities Readiness Initiative became such an avenue for partnership growth, as we leveraged these relationships and offered these types of businesses (among many others) closed Point of Dispensing Memorandums of Understanding in the event of a biological threat to our city. This resulted in one of the most robust CRI/SNS plans across the country, as these partnerships, beginning back in 2007, have now totaled nearly 450,000 individuals being covered within the closed POD system for the city.

Learning Areas:

Program planning

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the impact of an important post-Katrina local, state or national policy or practice change on disaster preparedness and response in New Orleans

Keyword(s): Disasters

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: While the Planning Section Chief of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness (NOHSEP), I was directly involved in various post-Katrina elements of city-wide preparedness including maintenance and coordination of the City Assisted Evacuation Plan, system and fiscal management of the Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS), planning development and fiscal management of the Cities Readiness Initiative, coordination of the NOHSEP Continuity of Operations Plan, and coordination of the City Emergency Operation Plan.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.