In Hurricane Katrina's wake, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals requested emergency room medical providers immediately for the Temporary Medical Operations Staging Areas (TMOSA) set up in Baton Rouge, La. at the LSU Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

Evacuees from the Greater New Orleans area were intended to have medical assessments at the TMOSAs. (BBC picture)

Louisiana State University's basketball arena facility in Baton Rouge, formally called the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, is more commonly called the 'P-MAC'

P-MAC facility is large, enclosed, has multiple creature comforts, including air-conditioning and able to be secured.

The main floor was organized by the USPublic Health Service and the National Guard into classic triage levels: Red = Critical, Yellow = Unstable, Green = Ambulatory illness.

The ICU/ Critical Care (Red) was not intensively used, [on the right side of this picture] but the Yellow area had a steady turnover. Disposition of patients was typically to Hospital, Nursing Home, a "Special Needs Area" or generic Shelter.

Medical care had a M*A*S*H quality - shifting resources, multiple providers, eccentric requests, busy.

Critical patients were stabilized and promptly transported.

Security was excellent. Border Patrol and National Guard troops carried M16s, and took their roles quite seriously.

Supplies appeared, esoteric and specific to our medical needs, almost miraculously.
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Ambulances brought patients both into and out of the facility, so the different EMS providers kept their rigs busy.

There were many opportunities for basic human care, which were as important as the medicine.

Help was offered in many forms. Since LSU will now be combined with Tulane University, the start of all classes will be delayed. Students volunteered in many ways.

People who were discharged to shelters had a chance to obtain basics: Clean clothing, warm food, blankets and a cot before busses came to shuttle people to new locations throughout the South.

Volunteers came from New York, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, California and Oregon. Here, all in dark blue, are medical professionals from Lyon, France where they function as a combination of firefighter and either physician / paramedic / nurse practitioner. (Language actually WAS a bit of a barrier.)