Public Health Experts Aid Hurricane Katrina Survivors (web article)

Experts from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University’s Schools of Medicine and Nursing and Harvard University traveled to the U.S. Gulf Coast on September 2 to assist the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Two four-person teams visited emergency shelters in the region at the request of the American Red Cross to determine what supplies, staffing and health services are needed or if additional shelters are required. The teams included experts in emergency medicine, disaster relief and waterborne illness. One team, led by W. Courtland Robinson, PhD, an assistant professor with the Bloomberg School’s Center for Refugee and Disaster Response, planned to conduct their public health needs assessment at shelters along the Mississippi coast. The other team, led by Thomas Kirsch, MD, MPH, director of Emergency Operations at the School of Medicine, traveled to Baton Rouge, La. to survey needs there.—Tim Parsons

Hurricane Katrina Information Page