RESCUE, RECOVERY AND REBUILDING:

LESSONS LEARNED, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

AUGUST 2, 2006

Cindy Phillips, LCSW

CPI Section Administrator

Louisiana Department of Social Services

Hurricane Katrina – August 29, 2005

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PostVeniceLG.jpg

KATRINA FACTS

• Costliest and one of the most deadly hurricanes in US history

• 3rd strongest hurricane to make landfall in the US

• Storm surge caused catastrophic damage

• 80% of New Orleans flooded as a result of the storm

• Estimated $829.2 billion in damages

• 1840 confirmed death toll as on May 19, 2006

• New Orleans population redistributed across the southern US

• 284,000 homes destroyed

• Half a million people forced to flee

• Population of New Orleans less than half pre-Katrina level one year later

IMPACT TO CHILD WELFARE

• Approximately 2000 foster children in the affected area• 1492 foster families• 738 OCS employees• (*affected area includes Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemine's and Jefferson

parishes)• Offices destroyed/Paper case records damaged and destroyed• Caseloads displaced both in state and out of state• Displaced workers and some terminated employment• Loss of contracts • $6 million cut to agency budget immediately after storm due to the state’s

financial uncertainty• Disruption to Normal Child Welfare Operations throughout the state as staff

continued to man shelters for many months post-Katrina

OCS St. Bernard Parish Office

OCS St. Bernard Parish Office

OCS St. Bernard Parish Office

WHAT DID WE DO?

• Shelter Duty: DSS is charged with management of Special Needs Shelters and the coordination of General Population Shelters.

• Managed 8 Special Needs Shelter for 1597 individuals

• Coordinated 400 General Population Shelter for 62,460

• Spent 127,824 hours by 1852 employees manning shelters over a period of several months

• Emergency Food Stamps

• Issued emergency food stamps to over ½ million household

• 2274 DSS employees worked 123,254 hours in the issuance of food stamps

What we did? (continued)• Services to Children

• Set up and staffed a special Children’s Shelter in Baton Rouge for children who were displaced from their families in the evacuation of New Orleans

• Worked with NCMEC, Angel Flight, and others to locate parents and reunite children with parents

• Accompanied children on Angel Flights for reunifications

• Established a 1-800 number and staffed 7 days a week 7 am to 7pm for displaced staff, foster and adoptive families, calls from volunteers and information and referral

• Established databases to track displaced staff, foster families, and children

• Re-issued board payments to displaced foster families

• Coordinated with other states’ CPS systems to assist with displaced children and families

• Fielded numerous media requests

THEN CAME RITASeptember 23, 2006

                                   

RITA FACTS

Had Hurricane Katrina not occurred, Hurricane Rita would have been the event of a decade, simply because of the magnitude of the storm.”

Gil Jamison, FEMA Deputy Director for Gulf Coast Recovery

Rita Facts

• Rita is the 4th most intense storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin

• She came ashore near the Louisiana/Texas border with 120 mph winds and a 15 foot storm surge and spawned 90 tornadoes

• It is estimated that she resulted in $10 billion in damages making her the 8th most costliest storm ever

• She killed 7 people directly, many others died in evacuations and indirect effects

Preparation for Rita

• Prior to evacuation, workers called providers to get contact information following evacuation

• Supervisors developed caseload lists for tracking children following the storm

• Regional staff evacuated to Shreveport and began contacting workers immediately following storm

• After storm regional staff collected information on all children, accounting for all

LESSONS LEARNEDTHINGS THAT WENT WELL

• Of the 2000 children in the affected areas, all were taken out of harms way and none were separated from their caretakers

• DSS staff did a magnificent job performing shelter duties

• With the help of NCMEC, all children displaced during the evacuation were safely housed at the Children’s Shelter and were quickly reunited with their families

• Support for our foster children and families was quickly mobilized across the state and across the nation

• A 1-800 number was quickly established and disseminated for foster parents and staff

• Quickly established contact with other states where families and staff evacuated to develop lines of communication

MORE LESONS LEARNED

• Cell phones do not work in post hurricane areas. Text messaging worked sporadically

• Paper records will not be available for review immediately following a disaster and in some cases will be destroyed

• A single database of evacuees in shelters would have helped in finding missing persons, particularly across state lines

• A single point of contact for coordinating volunteers would have been helpful

• A plan for displaced staff and foster families to check in immediately after a disaster is needed

• Operating 24 hours a day 7 days a week over an extended period of time caused system and staff problems

• Need a plan to handle the media in a disaster.

• Rumors are easily started

• These disasters personally impacted many staff throughout the state

“We have before us perhaps the most difficult and discouraging of all periods. No longer is

there excitement of catastrophe, the stimulation of heroism and fine sacrifice. Reconstruction is always the most trying

period of all disasters.”

Herbert HooverSpeaking after the Great Flood of 1927

RECOVERY

• Renegotiated PIP

• Short Term Recovery– Studying data to determine reasons for rise in foster care population

– Developing a protocol for case management and decision making for displaced foster children and biological parents

– Working with the courts to provide judicial oversight of displaced foster children

• Long Term Reforms– Front end reform to improve decision making and move toward more

prevention services

– Reduce the number of children in residential placement