Katrina Relief

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the refugees came pouring in here in Houston. There was a tremendous need for emergency health treatments, so I went over to the Reliant Center that weekend to sign up as a volunteer dentist. There are were so many agencies involved that the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing! There was quite a bit of chaos and confusion. Not very efficient. On the other hand, they appeared to have the food and water situation handled quite well. All in all it was a very bizarre situation. I was standing in the hall when Governor Perry appeared with his entourage. He was promptly swamped by the media. I spoke with state representative Sylvester Turner who told me he decided to "Just show up" and see what he could do. I have a good amount of portable dental equipment that I use in my workshops and had always considered how easy it would be to set up a dental "MASH" unit. My set-up is modular. I have 10 compressors and 10 portable units. Each unit can drive 2 hand-pieces each plus an air/water syringe. I only have one military style portable dental chair but I have 2 extra regular dental chairs that could easily be transported somewhere. UTDB had already set-up an "RV" style 3 dental chair portable office in the George R. Brown convention center which is just blocks from my office. The new rail connects downtown to the Reliant center. It's only about 20 minutes from one end to the other. The rail has a stop just one block from my office. The scene of Red Cross cots being set-up by the thousands was sobering. I'll try to post some photos to the blog to give you a better idea of what these people went through.