I recently traveled to my beloved hometown of New Orleans to represent GE at a number of events related to the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I had the privilege to participate in the Katrina 10: Resilient New Orleans conference, hosted by Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s office.
During my visit, I was able to trade perspectives with other participants as a conference panelist, was excited to attend a private event with President Barack Obama, was honored to accept an award on behalf of GE for our response efforts and ongoing commitment to improving health and education in the city, and had the pleasure of connecting with so many wonderful friends, old and new, who share my passion for strengthening this great city. (In addition to our current president, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, hundreds of media outlets, a host of celebrities, and other dignitaries converged on New Orleans to commemorate this milestone.)
In many ways, this was one of the most difficult and emotional business trips I have taken in my career. While it was uplifting to celebrate the resilience, determination, and sheer will of the city to overcome unbelievable hardship and to have made such forward progress, it still brought me great sadness to see that so much has yet to be done and to reflect on the longstanding wounds—still raw and fresh to many of us—that can be seen vividly today in parts of the city.
My childhood home, where my mother resided at the time of the Category 5 storm, was in the Carrollton section of New Orleans, which was a heavily flooded area of the city. As was the case with so many people, several of my friends and neighbors had to be rescued from their homes. The devastation was incredible…not only was my childhood home destroyed, but three of my neighbors across the street, whom I had known my entire life, drowned in the flood waters.
As of 2005 I had been part of the GE family for almost 20 years and was heartened to see first-hand the depth and breadth of response to this disaster by both the company and the GE Foundation. The GE family responded in full force and in a way that only an organization like GE can—with an impactful combination of financial funding, product donations from across our businesses, and employees lining up to support emergency relief and recovery efforts: $74.5 million total! (This amount includes individual and matched donations, equipment, and $50 million raised via an NBCUniversal telethon.)
View the GE’s Commitment to New Orleans infographic for highlights.
It wasn’t about just writing checks. As is always the case at both GE and the GE Foundation, we relied on our people, processes, and know-how to make an impact. A couple of weeks after “The Storm,” as it is referred to by locals, I arrived in New Orleans to assess the damage and check in on friends and family.
My first stop on the way to my mother’s house was “Camp Comfort,” the base-camp set up by GE for employees and other responders to live in while rebuilding the city’s infrastructure. Additionally, GE invested $1 million to ensure that Camp Comfort supplied the necessary “home away from home” housing for more than sixty people for nearly four months. It was incredible to see this “little city” that had sprung up to care for the people working to restore New Orleans—providing meals, showers, beds, equipment, and clothing. I was so proud to see the effort and impact.
Like so many others who returned to New Orleans after the storm, I was completely unprepared for the physical destruction I found when I entered my childhood home. However, the bigger issue was how to cope with rebuilding.
So many families and children not only lost their homes, but they also lacked basic support services including health care, education services, and employable skills.
I will always be grateful for the incredible support GE gave to me personally and to countless others in the midst of an extreme tragedy.
Since then, GE has shifted from serving the immediate needs of storm victims to investing heavily in areas to make a long-term, sustainable impact. As an example, GE provided critical resources in health care following the storm, including mobile x-ray systems, bassinettes/baby warmers, fetal monitors, and telemetry systems for hospitals.
The GE Foundation later followed this with grants that provided 8,000 students with increased access to health care through school-based health centers (SBHCs) in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. In 2010 the foundation made a new pledge of support to New Orleans with a three-year, $2 million grant to the Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI). With a focus on enabling access to primary health care services and sustaining SBHCs, the grant helped to meet the needs of Orleans Parish, ensured that the newly constructed SBHCs were working efficiently, and enabled them to provide services to the new volume of patients.
GE continues efforts like these to help New Orleans grow stronger each day. Though I admit being a bit biased, I am proud to be a part of a company that is great in so many ways, and more importantly, that does good with the help of great people, making a significant and sustainable impact. We have been joined by many other corporate citizens and foundations that continue their commitment to this great city, and for that I am truly grateful.
For a glimpse of my experiences during Katrina 10, check out my Twitter feed @DiversityDeb.
Related resources:
“Ten Years After Hurricane Katrina: Progress And Challenges Remain For US Emergency Preparedness,” by Nicole Lurie, Karen DeSalvo, and Kristen Finne of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Affairs Blog, August 27.
“Helping Nursing Homes Prepare For Disasters,” by Kathryn Hyer of the University of South Florida and coauthors, GrantWatch section, Health Affairs, October 2010.
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