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Messing with Texas: The Katrina and Rita Experience

Messing with Texas: The Katrina and Rita Experience. Dave Wanser, Ph.D. Deputy Commissioner for Behavioral and Community Health Texas Department of State Health Services dave.wanser@dshs.state.tx.us. Ramping up…and up…and up. Initial projection of 25,000 evacuees

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Messing with Texas: The Katrina and Rita Experience

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  1. Messing with Texas: The Katrina and Rita Experience Dave Wanser, Ph.D. Deputy Commissioner for Behavioral and Community Health Texas Department of State Health Services dave.wanser@dshs.state.tx.us

  2. Ramping up…and up…and up • Initial projection of 25,000 evacuees • Eventually 450,000, give or take 25,000 • Evacuees were in 202 of 254 Texas Counties • The number of shelters changed day by day. The number of “official” shelters nearly a month after Katrina and a few days after Rita was 400, housing an estimated population of 9,900, mostly “special needs”. There were likely twice that number.

  3. Timelines • 8-28: Texas SOC activated to 24/7 status • 8-29: Katrina landfall • 8-29: DSHS ESC activated to 24/7 status • 9-1: Governor’s Emergency Declaration • 9-2: Presidential Emergency Declaration • 9-3: 1115 waiver submitted • 9-20: Rita evacuation begins • 9-24: Rita landfall • 10-21 ESC stands down

  4. SOC, ESC, JFO, Leaning Forward and Standing Up • Personnel assignment and deployment issues • Impossible to focus the fuzzy picture • Managing, or at least trying to manage communication and coordination. Issues of single point of contact within Texas and with SAMHSA • Federal, State and Local bedfellows

  5. Two terms sorely in need of a Makeover • Temporary Shelter • Special Needs

  6. Gimme Shelter • Mega-shelters • “Special Needs” shelters • Non-urban shelters • Non-sanctioned shelters • Constant flow in and out, opening and closing of shelters • Constantly changing assessments of populations and needs

  7. MH and SA Response • Just-in-time training in mega and special needs shelters • By 9-7 MHSA issues were among the main concerns in shelters • Management of state hospital access – opening sub-acute unit • Well over 1000 staff from MH and SA contracted providers were in shelters 24/7 • Red Cross policy barrier • MH versus SA response

  8. Best Guess Data • MH opened to service – 7,509 • SA opened to service - 1,828 • State facility admissions – 123 • 1115 waiver served – 11,272 (all services, as of October) • Why all these numbers are vastly under- reported

  9. Lessons • Have a plan and work the plan • Sustainability of training, organization and staffing • Public health and other governmental agencies awareness and openness to MHSA issues is lacking • Plan past the emergency phase • Understand the gaps between what the feds can do, what the state can do, and what locals will do • Appreciate the importance of policy coordination • Take care of your people • All disasters are local

  10. 5 things to do before the next disaster • Address confidentiality and data sharing issues • Develop a better menu of tactical tools, i.e. warm lines, public education • Update what we say and do about trauma, particularly to secondary contacts • Use technology to track evacuees • Develop and use an after-action report if you were an impacted state, read those from impacted states if you were not.

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