FEMA Floodproofing Tips
Here are some general tips from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on flood and hurricane preparation for businesses:
▸ Ask your local emergency management office whether your facility is located in a flood plain. Find out the history of flooding in your area. Determine the elevation of your facility in relation to streams, rivers, and dams.
▸ Learn about community evacuation plans from your local emergency management office.
▸ Establish facility shutdown procedures. Make plans for assisting employees who may need transportation.
▸ Purchase a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather radio with a warning alarm tone and battery backup. Listen for flood watches and warnings.
▸ Get information about flood insurance from your insurance carrier. Regular property and casualty insurance does not cover flooding.
If a hurricane or other major weather event is being forecast, consider taking these actions ahead of time:
▸ Clear out areas with extensive glass frontage as much as possible. If you have shutters, use them; otherwise, use precut plywood to board up all doors and windows.
▸ Remove outdoor hanging signs.
▸ Bring inside or secure any objects that might become airborne and cause damage in strong winds.
▸ Store as much equipment as high as possible off the floor, especially goods that could be in short supply after the storm.
▸ Move equipment that cannot be stored away from glass and cover it with tarpaulins or heavy plastic.
▸ Place sandbags in spaces where water could enter.
▸ Remove papers from lower drawers of desks and file cabinets and place them in plastic bags or containers on top of the cabinets.
Medical Schools Find Other Locations
Medical schools affected by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath scrambled to find alternative locations and resources, to ensure that their students and residents would be able to continue practicing medicine.
At press time, most of the students from Tulane University in New Orleans were being housed 180 miles away at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss. Tulane leadership had set up temporary headquarters in Jackson with the assistance of the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Paul K. Whelton, M.D., senior vice president for health sciences at Tulane, said the university would establish a more permanent “interim leadership headquarters” in Houston.
“Senior administrative staff are in discussion with their counterparts at Houston-area medical schools about these schools assisting Tulane in continuing to provide medical education for Tulane students in all 4 years of medical education,” the Association of American Medical Colleges reported. A similar plan was being developed for Tulane residents.
In the meantime, the School of Medicine at Louisiana State University, New Orleans, made arrangements to hold classes in Baton Rouge until its facilities were once again suitable for occupation.
“We are closely working with the LSU System Office to arrange appropriate classroom space and accommodations for our students and faculty,” Dean Larry Hollier, M.D., said in a statement.
Charity Hospital in New Orleans will be out of service for an extended period of time, as the city begins a major clean up effort, he said. “We will be expending our bed capacity at Earl K. Long Medical Center [in Baton Rouge], and at University Medical Center in Lafayette … and reassigning our residency staff to those hospitals as well as to some other private hospitals.”
He noted that the university had an online registration available on its Web site at
The University of South Alabama in Mobile reopened in early September, the AAMC reported.