Never before Hurricane Katrina has a disaster caused such amassive displacement of a U.S. population. Never before hasthe country seen so vividly the exposure and vulnerability ofdisplaced persons — primarily the poor, the infirm, andthe elderly. We know from experience that disasters take theirgreatest toll on the disenfranchised, but the distressing televisionimages of our citizens stranded without basic human necessitiesand exposed to human waste, toxins, and physical violence awakenedthe public health community to a frightening realization: giventhe ineffective response mechanisms that were in place, Katrinacould become a public health catastrophe.
Dr. Greenough is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and an assistant professor of international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore. Dr. Kirsch is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, and the medical advisor for the American Red Cross, Washington, D.C.
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