Public Health Surveillance in a Large Evacuation Shelter Post Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey made landfall along the Texas coast on August 25th, 2017 as a Category 4 storm. It is estimated that the ensuing rainfall caused record flooding of at least 18 inches in 70% of Harris County. Over 30,000 residents were displaced and 50 deaths occurred due to the devastation. At least 53 temporary refuge shelters opened in various parts of Harris County to accommodate displaced residents. On the evening of August 29th, Harris County and community partners set up a 10,000 bed mega-shelter at NRG Center, in efforts to centralize refuge efforts.

January 25, 2018

Services Oriented Architectures and Just in Time Deployment of Ad-Hoc Health Surveillance Systems: Lessons from Katrina Relief Efforts

Timely outbreak detection, and monitoring of morbidity and mortality among Katrina evacuees, and needs assessment for better planning and response were urgent information intensive priorities during Katrina relief efforts at Houston, and called for immediate deployment of a real-time surveillance and needs assessment system ad hoc, in order to collect and analyze relevant data at the scene. Initial requirement analysis revealed the following capabilities as essential to sustain effective response within the shelters:

July 30, 2018

Disease Surveillance among Katrina Evacuees in Shelters - Use of a Web-Based Surveillance System during an Emergency Response

On Monday, August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. Outside of the affected areas of TX, LA, MS, and AL, GA received the largest number of these evacuees, approximately 125,000. By August 30, 2005, GA began receiving a total of approximately 1,300 NDMS patients from flights arriving at Dobbins Air Force Base. Within days, Georgia established 13 shelters for evacuees. Crowded shelters can increase the risk for communicable diseases. In addition, many evacuees left behind needed medications, thus increasing the risk for chronic disease exacerbations.

 

July 30, 2018

Shelter Health Surveillance

During the 2017 Houston floods Lauren Leining worked with the the American Red Cross to visit each disaster victim in a shelter to do bed evaluations, but learned it was a very common thing for people to refuse treatment for a variety of reasons. Many people didn’t want to walk to where the assessments were going on because it was often on one end of a giant convention center. Sometimes they just didn’t feel well enough – for example, they were in pain or their ankle hurt.

April 03, 2018

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