SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Friday marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, killing nearly 2,000 people and displacing hundreds of thousands.
The anniversary resonates in San Diego, where Scripps Health sent a roughly 70-member team to Houston to help staff a relief clinic for evacuees, a mission the health system says was the first time a private hospital network was tapped for long-term disaster support.
Chris Van Gorder, Scripps Health’s president and CEO, said the call came quickly after the storm.
“The next morning we got a phone call from a rear admiral with the U.S. Public Health Service asking us to deploy our team to the Gulf,” Van Gorder said.
The group, nurses, physicians and other medical staff, set up inside the George R. Brown Convention Center, where thousands sought aid.
“It brings back memories as if it happened yesterday,” Van Gorder said. “It’s a reminder that these natural disasters can hit any community at any time.”
Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, and became one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in U.S. history.
Inside the convention center, Van Gorder said, the need was overwhelming.
He called the deployment a defining chapter for Scripps, demonstrating how a local health system could answer a national call for help. Van Gorder still keeps letters and cards from evacuees and local children who thanked the team.
Among the gratitude were stories of loss.
“There was one woman we cared for whose son died when a bus flipped during the Superdome evacuation,” he said. “There was only one fatality her son.”
With the 20th anniversary approaching, Van Gorder said the experience continues to guide Scripps’ emergency planning at home, and its readiness to deploy when the next call comes.
Leave a comment