Hurricanes, earthquakes, and other disasters have monopolized our attention lately. Though I was far outside the paths of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, I monitored their progress and couldn’t help but think how unprepared I would be for a local emergency.
It wasn’t always this way. In 2005, I was living and working in south Florida during a particularly busy hurricane season—28 named storms, seven of them Category 3 or stronger. That was the year of Katrina and Wilma. The season started early and ended late, stretching into January.
By the end of that year, I was a pro. My house was stocked with food and water, extra gas for the generator, my car’s tank never dropped below half, and I kept a stash of cash for when the power failed and ATMs were useless. At work, my locker had spare clothes, bottled water, and a headlamp. I thought I was ready for anything.
We had a family disaster plan, and my hospital had strategies for staffing, backup power, food, and supplies—enough for two or three days of emergency conditions. New Orleans hospitals had similar plans in place when Katrina struck. Yet, as I later read in Nursing in the Storm, the experiences of the nurses there showed that no one was truly prepared for what came next.
Their stories were harrowing and humbling. My flashlight and snacks might carry me through a storm, but not the scale or duration of a true disaster. Most of us are not prepared for prolonged power failure, broken communication, or crippled infrastructure.
Hospitals plan for the tangible: evacuations without elevators, food rationing, backup charting. Nurses in Katrina did all of this—and more. Their accounts reveal an emotional resilience few of us know we possess, forged under conditions of fatigue, heat, fear, and impossible choices.
When the emergency passed, the media moved on, but nurses were left with the memories of no-win decisions—whether to accept more patients when already over capacity, or how to live with choices that weighed on their conscience.
The lesson is clear: while emergency plans are essential, no plan is perfect. Disasters always present unforeseen challenges. What got New Orleans nurses through was their ability to let go of what they couldn’t control and focus on what they could—caring for themselves, their colleagues, and their patients until help arrived.
That is nursing in the storm.
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