Keenan Thomas
The University of Tennessee at Knoxville lived up to its moniker after Hurricane Katrina made landfall Aug. 29, 2005. Some Volunteers rushed to Louisiana while others stayed back to help those who made a temporary life here.
The university opened its doors to students from other schools who had to flee the Gulf Coast, offering classes at no cost or for the in-state tuition rate, thanks to a directive from then-Gov. Phil Bredesen. The Knoxville campus welcomed about 110 students, according to UT in 2006.
The students who came to UT inspired those who worked with them, and those who went out into the field took away lessons they still use today in the classroom.
Jerry Adams, the director of residence life for UT Housing, remembers one student who arrived with his mother when they had nothing left back home. That student ended up graduating from UT, he said.
“He and his mom were so excited to be here, but they were just so appreciative of anything that we did and the help that we did for them. We’re Volunteers, it’s just Tennessee, so we just did what we normally do,” Adams said.
Retired College of Veterinary Medicine faculty member Nancy Howell remembers how UT students, faculty and staff members helped set up evacuation shelters at Central Bearden Church and at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum. Cities around the South opened their doors to those whose lives were upended.
Tensions were high because evacuees had to be separated from their pets, according to orders. The UT animal experts reassured the owners and tagged the pets so they could be reunited in the future.
“Since I had completed my (master’s of public health) two years earlier, the Katrina experience was my first opportunity to be involved in real-life situation that we had previously only done as table top planning sessions,” Howell wrote to Knox News. “Although it was sad to see displaced people and pets who had lost everything, it was a significant educational experience to go through.”
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University of Tennessee veterinary students provided animal care
UT College of Veterinary Medicine graduate Catrina Herd helped soon after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.
She was in her fourth year of studies when Katrina hit. Herd volunteered with the Humane Society of the United States for a few years before that, and the organization asked her to build a makeshift animal shelter for 10 days. She agreed, then realized she needed to get UT’s permission to miss two weeks of school.
Joined by two other students and her mom, she traveled to Dixon Correctional Institute, a medium-security prison outside Jackson, Louisiana, to save animals being pulled out of the floods.
“You go where you’re needed,” Herd said.
The small team used their education to help cats, chickens, ducks and around 160 dogs, including around 140 full-grown pit bulls. Safety was Herd’s number one concern as she helped the animals in the prison, which they used alongside those detained inside.
“It takes a lot of resilience to be able to go into an area like that and overcome whatever obstacles come up,” she said.
Upon her return to UT, she made up the work she had missed over the winter break to graduate on time, and in the following months she helped animals transferred to shelters throughout the South. She now runs her own veterinary practice in Nashville.
The college's dean at the time, Michael Blackwell, asked her why she needed to go.
“I think it just has to do with my passion for being of service. I think ultimately that is who I am,” she told Knox News.
University of Tennessee nursing students and faculty helped recreate health care
Several Volunteers made plans to travel to Louisiana once the immediate needs subsided. They used their expertise to help continue basic medical care for residents who stayed to rebuild.
A team from the UT College of Nursing arrived in early 2006, a few months after landfall.
Karen Lasater was a junior faculty member at the time, having joined UT in 2004. She had years of experience working in hospitals across Tennessee and earned her master’s degree before taking the role. She was helping Mary Kollar with the Family Nurse Practitioner Program when they were tasked with taking two graduate students to meet Remote Area Medical staffers and Tulane University students to operate a clinic. The team ran three trailers dedicated to women's health for a week, setting up in the peacock area of the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans.
In that week, Lasater said they helped more than 300 women with acute and chronic conditions, and performed well-woman visits with annual tests.
“There was a need. We had students that were doing their clinicals. It was just a great merge of what we could offer them service-learning-wise and the need,” she said. “The access to care was nonexistent there at the time. There just wasn’t availability of resources.”
Lasater learned she could adapt to any situation. For nursing students, it offered on-the-ground training in how to focus on one patient and their immediate needs, then do it 300 more times.
The work followed Lasater home. She spent months completing tests and sending the results to the women they cared for. In some cases, they delivered hard news, including positive cancer results.
“That’s a life situation. That was a huge responsibility that we needed to do that follow-up care and make sure they got what they needed,” Lasater said.
Twenty years later, she uses the experience to show students that tragedy can happen anytime, anywhere, to anyone, and nurses need to be prepared to provide the best care they can offer.
“You just roll up your sleeves and you know it’s going to be hard work, but that’s what you do, because we’re Volunteers," Lasater said.
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