2005 Hurricane SeasonU.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Carmona's Press Briefing on Hurricane Rita
Thursday, September 22, 2005 - - - DR. CARMONA: Hello. Thanks for being with us today. This is Rich Carmona, the U.S. Surgeon General and I'd just like to give you a brief update of what we're doing as it related to Rita as it approaches Texas. Since about two days ago we've been in regular contact with state officials in the Governor's office as well as the public health leaders within the state, assessing their needs as they move along with their evacuation plans, as well as prepositioning some of their assets to be able to respond in a contingent fashion to any emergencies that may occur. The plan is to evacuate as much as possible all those who may be in harms way based on the expected path of the hurricane, as you all know is variable and can change at the last minute. An hour ago we had our last phone conference with Dr. Eduardo Sanchez who is the state health director in Texas, along with some of his leadership, to ascertain where they were with their planning, as well as how we may best back them up and fill the gaps when the states resources might be exceeded. On the ground there, we've already pre-deployed Rear Admiral Mary Pat Couig who is our chief nurse for the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, along with Captain Epi Elizondo who is a Texas officer who knows the area very well, bilingual and those two officers will be imbedded within the incident command system of the state and will be our ears and eyes on the ground as we move forward to pre-deploy our resources in support of the state of Texas as it deals with the challenges before it. So that's where we are right now. I expect after I finish with this media interview we will have a White House conference call and we will get back on the line with Texas and continue to reassess and formulate our plans minute to minute as the information comes in. Q & A w/ Media LN with AP: A couple questions for you about how the evacuation is going and what you anticipate the needs might be for however many people remain. Do you have any numbers from the hospitals as to how many people they will have to have remaining and how many hospitals have generators above ground level so that they won't have to face some of the same conditions as being with no power that we saw in New Orleans. Can you tell us how the land looks right now? DR. CARMONA: I'm happy to. First of all, and just speaking with Dr. Sanchez and where they are with their evacuation plan, they're estimating that they'll have to evacuate between one and one and a half million people north of the affected area. They have concentrated up to this point on special needs populations-those in hospitals, nursing homes, home health, and the homeless, those populations that are most vulnerable. They are reaching out in the communities and strongly recommending that all who can voluntarily leave the affected area and move to safer, higher ground. There's already been thousands of patients that have been evacuated and through mutual aid agreements and agreements with other hospitals and communities, as well as hospitals outside of the state, patients are being moved as we speak. Houston has about 60 hospitals and there are about 16,000 beds in that area alone. Houston is felt to be relatively safe now because of the redundancy of its hospital system. That's one of the larger cities that's being used. But we've had evacuees moved to Fort Chafee, Arkansas, for instance, and I know Dr. Sanchez is reaching out to all of the communities that are in relatively safe areas to make that occur. My understanding is that hospitals in Galveston, and hospitals and health facilities that are likely to be in the eye or path of this hurricane have been evacuated. They will not be used for any contingency. For example, the University of Texas at Galveston has been evacuated. As well as the Bureaus of Prisons and the jails in that area. REPORTER: As we go further into areas that haven't been evacuated, can you tell us about their generator capacity and backup systems? DR. CARMONA: The larger hospitals, which are certified by the Joint Commission on Hospitals, generally have redundant communication and redundant power. So that if power goes out, there are generators that are available for that purpose. Dr. Sanchez is evaluating that right now as he decides on which hospitals would be most beneficial to evacuate to and which hospitals may be at risk. That specific list is being generated by the state of Texas, and then we will coordinate with them to see where we might have to augment some of their resources. REPORTER: And do you have commissioned corps that have already been pre-deployed? DR. CARMONA: Yes. Our chief nurse Rear Admiral Mary Pat Couig and Captain Epi Elizondo, who is based in Texas already, are at the joint forces operation center in Austin with Dr. Sanchez and his leadership and they are our eyes and ears on the ground to help with situational awareness and be a timely conduit of information in both directions for us to the governor's office, as well as to the medical leadership in the community. REPORTER: Okay, but beyond those two you don't have actual teams that are pre-deployed? DR. CARMONA: We have about 55 or so officers en-route being deployed as we speak. We have a federal medical shelter that's en-route that's a 250 bed hospital. We anticipate forward deploying within the next 24 hours, 750 more beds, along with staffing commensurate with the needs that are elucidated after we have that needs assessment done by Dr. Sanchez and our staff on the ground. REPORTER: And just to close here, can you tell us how this is different than what was done in preparation for Katrina? DR. CARMONA: I think that Katrina certainly sensitized everybody to the need to first of all, do preventive measures: evacuate as quickly as possible, and when at all possible, make sure that all communities that may be anywhere near the path of this devastation are moved forward. Texas has a, you know, very good plan for evacuation, as well as relationships with various organizations who will assist them. Because, they recognize that at the state level it is very difficult for them to take on that burden, but coupling with local resources, as well as the private sector, they're moving people out. So I think it's a brisker response, a more robust response. I think we've all be sensitized to what we've experienced just recently with Katrina. Donna Young with the American Journal of Health Systems Pharmacy: I have a question specific to the volunteer site that HHS launched on September 3rd. I wanted to know if that is still active and how many people we have deployed so far who have volunteered from registering on that website. And also if you could please say where the federal medical shelter on route right now to be set up is located? DR. CARMONA: The federal medical shelter is on route to Kaline, Texas, to Fort Hood right now. Now that can be diverted based on the ongoing situational awareness that develops. Obviously since this is a very dynamic process, as Dr. Sanchez and the leadership in Texas make determinations as to where their gaps are, we can re-deploy at any time. The same for the 750 additional beds, which would give us 1,000 total. They will be destined to be pre-deployed to a safe location like Fort Hood, Texas, but at any time can be re-directed based on needs that are ongoing as we improve our situational awareness, as we make a determination as to where best the hurricane may strike. The issue of our volunteer system, which has gone very, very well, working with the American Hospital Association and associations of long-term care facilities (nursing homes and others), we have managed to put together two lists. One list is that of organizations who are willing to support us and backfill some of the many, may needs that exceed all of our resources. We have deployed teams already. For example, the Houston site, with all the evacuees, we deployed a Kaiser Hospital team from Northern California and we've also deployed a Scripts Hospital team from San Diego, who backfill many of the positions, and who in fact are still in place in Houston carrying for evacuees. We also have gone down the list of over 100 volunteers of individual volunteers with specific skill sets that we've needed and deployed them to many, many locations, small shelters, clinics, and other locations to augment our existing federal staff, as well as the local assets that are there. We had shut down, as of 2-3 days ago, the actual recruitment because we had thousands that have signed up already and it really, at that point, did not make sense to us to continue to lengthen the list of either organizations or individuals. At this time we're reconsidering opening that based on the needs assessment from Dr. Sanchez and the state of Texas, but we have almost 2,000 health professionals all credentialed and ready to go, should we need them. And we have hundreds of organizations ready to go, should we need them. REPORTER: Just to clarify, out of the several thousand that have registered, you've identified 2,000 that could be ready to go? And you have over 100 volunteers that you have also identified who have been deployed? Approximately 100 have already been deployed into the three state areas affected by Katrina. If we go to the list now, we will continue to use our volunteer list as necessary, both organizationally and individually to supplement the Katrina response, as well as to supplement any needs that may be unmet in Texas. REPORTER: Will this be ongoing? Once they've actually put this database together, will they use it next year for next hurricane season or any other crisis that comes up? DR. CARMONA: That's actually an interesting point you make, because for the first time in the history of this country, we have harnessed the energy of volunteers. This is something that the President has wanted to do for quite some time after he saw what happened on 9/11. Secretary Leavitt took advantage of that and challenged us to put together such a system, which we did in a matter of a couple of days really at the beginning of the Katrina response. Now we're dealing with those issues. One of those things we recognize is we need to institutionalize this type of a process, so that in the future when we have catastrophic events, we will have this reserve, if you will, to draw from. Now, the problem with maintaining a list like that is pretty significant, because people change jobs, they move, phone numbers change, educational levels change, credentialing requirements change, etc. We're looking into methods to be able to have this done continually-much like we do now with our Medical Reserve Corps, which is part of the President's Freedom Corps that he has assigned to the Office of the Surgeon General. We have over 50,000 volunteers in 49 states. Some of whom have already been deployed from Oklahoma to the three state areas to provide needed search capacity. Reporter: CP, Fort Worth Star Telegram: Could you tell us what steps have been taken to secure the BSL4 Labs at UTMB and the Nuclear Power Plant down there. DR. CARMONA: I would be happy to address one of the two issues right now more fully. First the Level 4 Lab at UC Galveston, we have been working with the leadership there and have taken all the necessary emergency actions to be able to destroy any of the pathogens used for experimentation. Animals who were affected have been euthanized and incinerated. The areas have been sterilized so that there is no danger. Regardless of the impact of the hurricane, there will be no danger from any of those bio-agents to anyone in the public. The nuclear plant is being assessed as we speak. In general, I can tell you there are processes in place to shut down if necessary, and protect against surge and any flooding that may occur. That information is being gathered right now by officials in Texas. - - -
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