{
  "id": "RL33096",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL33096",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 311794,
      "date": "2006-01-20",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T19:19:17.473029",
      "title": "2005 Gulf Coast Hurricanes: The Public Health and Medical Response",
      "summary": "Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in late August 2005, causing catastrophic wind damage\nand\nflooding in several states, and a massive dislocation of victims across the country. The storm was\none of the worst natural disasters in the nation's history. Estimates are that more than 1,200 people\nwere killed and about 2 million displaced. Hurricane Rita, which made landfall along the Gulf Coast\nin late September 2005, was ultimately less lethal than Katrina, but prompted aggressive\npreparedness efforts by governments and citizens shaken by the devastation of the earlier storm.\n In response to a series of disasters and terrorist attacks over the past decade, in particular the\nterror attacks of 2001, Congress, the Administration, state and local governments and the private\nsector have made investments to improve disaster preparedness and response. New federal\nauthorities and programs to strengthen the nation's public health system were introduced in\ncomprehensive legislation in 2002. Congress also created the Department of Homeland Security\n(DHS) in 2002 to provide national leadership for coordinated preparedness and response planning. \nA new National Response Plan (NRP), launched by DHS in December 2004, met its first major test\nin the response to Hurricane Katrina.\n According to the NRP, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is tasked with\ncoordinating the response of the public health and medical sectors following a disaster. HHS works\nwith several other agencies to accomplish this mission, which includes assuring the safety of food,\nwater and environments, treating the ranks of the ill and injured, and identifying the dead. HHS\nactivities are coordinated with those of other lead agencies under the overall leadership of DHS.\n Congress and others will review the response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita with an eye toward\nassessing how well the NRP worked as an instrument for coordinated national response, and how\nwell various agencies at the federal, state and local levels carried out their missions under the plan. \nHurricane Katrina dealt some familiar blows in emergency response. The failure of communication\nsystems, and subsequent difficulties in coordination, challenged response efforts in this disaster as\nwith others before it. Hurricane Katrina also pushed some response elements, such as surge capacity\nin the healthcare workforce, to their limits. The response to Hurricane Katrina has also called\nattention to the matter of disaster planning in healthcare facilities, and the potential role of health\ninformation technology in expediting the care of displaced persons. Policymakers will no doubt\nstudy these elements of the Katrina response and seek options for continued improvement in national\ndisaster preparedness and response.\n This report discusses the NRP and its components for public health and medical response,\nprovides information on key response activities carried out by agencies in HHS and DHS, and\ndiscusses certain issues in public health and medical preparedness that have been raised by the\nresponse to the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes. This report will be updated as circumstances warrant.",
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      "typeId": "REPORTS",
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      "topics": []
    },
    {
      "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs7639/",
      "id": "RL33096 2005-09-21",
      "date": "2005-09-21",
      "retrieved": "2005-11-02T15:07:30",
      "title": "Hurricane Katrina: The Public Health and Medical Response",
      "summary": null,
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORT",
      "active": false,
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          "filename": "files/20050921_RL33096_0707c2511c47bf8f4af041239c0ee7426c482353.html"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Emergency management",
          "name": "Emergency management"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Public health",
          "name": "Public health"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Emergency medical services",
          "name": "Emergency medical services"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Hurricane Katrina (2005)",
          "name": "Hurricane Katrina (2005)"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Health policy",
          "name": "Health policy"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Medicine",
          "name": "Medicine"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Health Policy"
  ]
}