Recovery, Transition, and Growth - Restoring Veterans Health Care After Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina changed the face of New Orleans. In her aftermath came broken levees, flooded streets, homelessness and devastation of unprecedented proportions. Katrina’s storm surge pushed the waters of Lake Pontchartrain inland, inundating parts of every community along the shore in St. Tammany Parish. South of the lake, breeched levees poured water throughout nearly 80 percent of the city of New Orleans. Families scattered, seeking shelter from what would become the nation’s costliest natural disaster, and returned only to find their homes destroyed.
Employees and patients at the VA medical center in New Orleans found the building damaged and unsuitable for health care. The future of Veterans health care - and the future of hundreds of VA employees - was uncertain. What follows is the story of the titanic recovery effort that started with a flooded 50-year-old medical center and ends with the construction of a state of-the-art facility.
Read the article published in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VAnguard Magazine, January/February 2012 issue by clicking on the link to the PDF of the magazine below.
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