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Memorial Hospital bright light for community after Katrina.

Article Excerpt
GULFPORT -- After Hurricane Katrina passed through August 29, the only visible lights shining brightly as darkness fell in the southwestern part of this city were from Memorial Hospital at Gulfport.

Memorial Hospital had instituted disaster preparedness plans honed from the lessons of past hurricanes. There were four days of supplies stored including enough diesel to power the entire hospital. A designated hurricane team of 620 employees including health professionals was available to provide care to existing patients and those injured by the storm.

Maintenance workers deployed throughout the large hospital began emergency repairs even before the last winds of Katrina blew through. The hospital escaped the widespread flooding south of them. There were windows blown out and damage to exterior walls, but the building was quickly re-sealed.

Seeing the light

But when darkness came, a new flood came--refugees from the storm. Local residents came out of trees and out of the water, walking away from damaged or destroyed homes. Most had no supplies or extra clothes. Many were injured. With roads blocked by debris, they also had nowhere to go after being treated at the hospital.

"Monday night people in the area saw our lights," said Diane Gallagher, director of community and corporate relations for Memorial Hospital at Gulfport. "I walked down by the railroad tracks and saw that as the wind started dying down, people were coming out of the trees and water walking towards us. People were walking from all directions coming here. It was chilling to see so many people in the emergency department who were cold, wet and cut. That was our first clue as to the real damage outside of this building.

"We got them through the emergency department, got them blankets, started feeding them, and then realized we had nowhere to discharge people. They had lost everything,...

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