Recent hurricane events in coastal Louisiana have emphasized the severe vulnerability of medical special needs (MSN) patients during flood disasters. MSN populations may be comprised of hospital, nursing home or hospice patients; the physically or mentally disabled; medically-dependent individuals requiring life-sustaining equipment or medicines; and frail elderly.
Over 150 hospital and nursing home fatalities resulted from Hurricane Katrina in New
Orleans. More than four hundred elderly over the age of seventy perished. Chronic diseases and
mental health illness were among the top conditions reported in field hospitals, emergency rooms and shelters immediately following the storm.
Louisiana MSN facilities and residences in the southern-most parishes continue to face
daunting risks from even minor storms. Principal risks include storm surge and high winds made
worse by coastal land loss. Few structures have been designed to withstand hurricane forces and
many depend on coastal hurricane protection systems. Many are located in close proximity to
industrial facilities or hazardous material sites.
Meanwhile, MSN patients and decision-makers lack access to the latest hurricane science. This prevents them from conceptualizing their true hurricane vulnerability. Indications were that high numbers of MSN patients remained in the risk area even while Category 5 Hurricane Katrina loomed towards Louisiana. Many still plan to shelter in place for hurricanes.
This manuscript reviews the health and hurricane risks of MSN patients in evacuation vs.
sheltering in place in coastal Louisiana. The latest hurricane models are incorporated with
critical MSN location data in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to determine threshold events. Solutions are explored to communicate risk, visualize data, and share hurricane research
and GIS tools with MSN decision-makers at the local level.
Based on scientifically accredited modeling and associated research, this study has determined the threshold storm event for coastal Louisiana MSN patient evacuation to be a tropical storm. Particularly, rapid hurricane intensification has historically supported that even lower order storms may intensify enough within 48 hours of landfall to create unsafe flood and wind levels. Thus, full MSN patient evacuation south of the Louisiana interstates is recommended upon a tropical storm entering the Gulf of Mexico.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-11092007-093218 |
| Date | 12 November 2007 |
| Creators | Streva, Kathryn Emily |
| Contributors | Andrew Curtis, Ivor van Heerden, Martin Hugh-Jones, S. Hassan Mashriqui |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11092007-093218/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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