When hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on 29th August last year, it did enormous damage to Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. Hurricane damage reached far inshore and many communities were devastated. Well over a million people had evacuated ahead of the storm but in some parishes, there were people who choose to ride it out. This may be difficult for people in New Zealand to understand. However, hurricanes are not infrequent events and evacuation can be difficult. For people with their own transport, there are still the problems of obtaining fuel, getting supplies, and boarding up houses. Many people had ridden out bad hurricanes before and come to no harm. It is easy from a distance and with hindsight to say, "I would have evacuated", but unless you live in an area that gets these warnings, you really don’t know what you would do. High temperatures, lack of fuel supplies, hours upon hours in traffic gridlock, and knowing that as you head North accomodation will be quickly filling with the other million or so getting out are good reasons to think twice. We must also remember that nothing is certain about where a hurricane will make landfall until just a matter of hours before.

Perhaps this entry should be titled, “Hurricane Katrina and experiences with bureaucracy”. Every person affected by hurricane Katrina and its aftermath has horror stories to tell about their dealings with bureaucracy. We found that with the Disastersearch site, even the helpers ran into brick walls of red tape.

When the site launched, we had two unique features that were offered through private areas of the site, secured from the rest of the world. Those who saw our first press releases would have seen this comment:

Other features of the web site include a private section designed for triage personnel. People had lost their medical records and we were seeing situations where triage doctors were prescribing medication with no way of alerting other medical personnel of the treatment. We saw a need for temporary records which could only be accessed by medical staff, so we created it.Disastersearch Press Release

Now, although we received support from doctors and from the heads of some medical professional organisations, we could not get past the red tape to allow any triage personnel to use the medical records system. We understood the difficulties of intermittent WAP cellphone access and the demands on the time of the medical personnel on the ground in the affected areas, but we also knew that people were receiving inappropriate treatment due solely to a lack of any records-keeping. This became even more apparent when evacuations started following the hurricane. People were being treated at one location, then treated again at their destination. Traumatised people are not necessarily able to recall exactly what drugs they have been given, nor can they be relied on to remember the names of any treatments they were on previously.

Until the official announcement that the site was ready, our contact with people who had been directly affected by hurricane Katrina had been through people working in shelters. With the announcement, we suddenly rocketed to tens of thousands of visitors to the site each day. And people did not just want to register their missing loved ones or find information, they wanted to communicate directly with someone. They were going through hell and were reaching out for help. I was prepared for how we envisaged the site would be used and what we needed to provide for people, but nothing could have prepared me for the impact of the thousands of messages and emails that started coming in. It is these messages and the people with whom I developed relationships that have changed my life forever.

I was the point of all contact with the site and as we felt it was important that people kept the same contact in any communications, I took on the responsibility of responding to all messages. I did not want people to send their messages and have to wait ages for a reply, so my email software stayed connected, bringing down the messages as they arrived, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Even at the peak of incoming messages, it was rare for any person who needed help to have to wait more than a couple of hours before they got a reply. Due to time constraints, the emails that did not get quick replies were the ones from the press and other media. That was a bit of a catch-22 situation - we had the resources available for people who desperately needed them and the media were able to get the word out that the site was there, but I was personally too busy helping people to take time out with media requests. Peter was also extremely busy, but his limited English presented difficulties for US media. We also learned early on that media that expressed a great interest in what we were doing suddenly lost interest when they realised we were not US citizens or even living in the US. I would often find myself waiting for calls from reporters at around 3am or 4am my time, take time to answer their questions, only to find that there was no interest by them in running the story once they learned I was in New Zealand.

Sunday was my daughter’s birthday and late last night I found myself reflecting on how one event can change someone’s life forever. My life changed when my daughter was born. On her last birthday, however, I had no inkling that little more than ten days later my life would change again, almost overnight, and set me on a course I could never have imagined.

I started writing this blog entry to let off steam over those few in Palmerston North who are sending me messages, whining about the fact that I am part of a small team that has created an amazing resource for those affected by hurricane Katrina. Apparently, they have assumed that this means I am not honouring my responsibilities to Palmerston North. Isn’t it always the squeaky wheels making the most noise that people notice?

I’m not writing more about them except to say that those people who have shown their complete lack of compassion for others, and a preference for making swipes at me, will get no explanation or apology from me for anything I am doing.