[Carrie Anne Weeks]

My big idea to fund before the next hurricane is an evacuation plan that includes better hospital planning for the safety of the staff and the patients, better improvements for equipment – especially generators that are water powered, and better ways for communication so the evacuation and rescue is immediate and quickly done. The evacuation plan includes evacuating the patients -sickest and the heaviest earlier and bringing them to higher ground even if it means leaving the state of Louisiana and going to Texas. The state and federal government should not make the hospitals be on their own for seven days! That should have never come into the equation when they did the first mock hurricane – there should be a set plan in place of what to do.

The evacuation plan includes the state doing another mock hurricane disaster with all the players involved (for example: Federation of American Hospitals, state and local authorities, National Guard and Coast Guard reserves, FEMA, DHHS, etc.) that help watch over the hospitals in the area and find ways to eliminate the lack of communication between all the agencies – they need to all be on the same page when it comes to evacuating before another hurricane strikes.

The evacuation plan would use a better communication system so they all communicate with each other and that all the agencies can access information when a disaster strikes again. The evacuation plan should include new helipads. The hospital helipad should be updated too. Going back to 1986 and only having it for Pope John Paul to visit – the helipad should have been in working order and up to code!

I believe building another helipad should happen too so that patients get evacuated quickly with one rescue flight after another. My big idea would also include the hospital having a makeshift boat launch or a water pad too so that they have their own airboats stored away in the hospital garages to be used for patient transport to get to safety after a massive flood from a storm.

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