Why did MSF decide to do an assessment of the Hurricane Katrina-affected region?
MSF works primarily in the developing world providing assistance to people affected by war and disease, as well as natural disasters. Other than a modest psychosocial support program for first-responders after 9/11, we’ve never worked in the United States and therefore have limited logistical capacity and expertise here. Given the resources and response capacity in the United States, we initially did not anticipate that there would be a need for the limited role we could play in responding to unmet emergency medical needs. Nevertheless, after watching the horrible impact of Hurricane Katrina and the relief response unfold, we decided to carry out an assessment mission in the state of Louisiana, and particularly in New Orleans. We had been in touch with many official and personal contacts as well as several former MSF volunteers who were already volunteering in the relief effort in the region, and based on these conversations, we thought we ought to go there and do our own independent a
