Franklin ’76 points to Katrina to stress need for advance planning

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is a convincing reason to emphasize the need for creating strong communities and for planning in advance for natural emergencies, Evangeline Franklin ’76 said in her lecture on Friday.

Franklin, who serves as emergency preparedness manager of the city of New Orleans, was the medical director in the Superdome, a stadium which served as a temporary housing facility for people fleeing their homes before the hurricane.

“A community prepared requires the personal commitment of each individual,” she explained.

The presentation, entitled “The City of New Orleans in Disaster and Recovery,” focused on the hurricane-caused devastation in New Orleans and the various efforts to manage the aftermath.

Franklin began by pointing out various disasters that could occur or have occurred near audience members’ hometowns and reminded students that everyone could potentially be affected by a mass disaster. “You might want to take your spare time and become a search-and-rescue worker or a fireman,” she told the audience.

National infrastructure has to function smoothly to manage people in times of crisis because preparing for a disaster and the reality of recovery efforts is quite difficult, she said.

Franklin reminded the audience that New Orleans was once a major trading port and one of the wealthiest cities in the country. Later, levees were constructed and land was reclaimed from marshes to allow increased development as the city extended to areas below sea level. “We live in a bowl,” Franklin explained.

More recently, however, the city’s population has become socially stratified. Franklin displayed maps of the education and income for city’s population, noting that there were clear trends in the distribution. “I want you to think about what that means,” she told the audience.

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Franklin described how the hurricane passed over and broke the levees, which caused much of the city’s flooding. Franklin was in Washington, D.C. during Katrina’s landing but returned before the hurricane hit to prepare coordination of the recovery efforts. After the hurricane had passed, many were left stranded on their roofs and on elevated roads.

She described a number of recovery efforts in the city. She praised the efforts of the Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT), a group of volunteers from California who traveled to New Orleans immediately following the disaster and operated a medical center inside the Superdome.

DMAT set up its medical center within 30 minutes of arrival and began to treat patients. Patients in need of critical care were airlifted to the airport.

She also noted how civilization broke down inside the Superdome. Crime rates and chaos soared as more and more people gathered inside.

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Franklin concluded by commenting on long-term recovery efforts, noting examples such as the right of return, integrating survivors into the cities where they now live and treating psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Franklin received her Princeton degree in biochemistry and received a medical degree and master’s in public health from Yale.

The audience responded positively to Franklin’s lecture. Brandon Szeto ’09, who was writing an essay about the lecture for his public speaking course, said she was very active and involved and engaged the audience throughout the presentation.

Sara Viola ’08, who attended on the recommendation of her environmental justice professor, said that she had “never seen a speaker like [Franklin] before.