The Mississippi Katrina experience: applying lessons learned to augment daily operations in disaster preparation and management.

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the US Gulf Coast, causing catastrophic damage to communities and the medical infrastructure throughout the lower half of Mississippi. Substantial power outages, widespread communication failures, and a sustained medical surge of patients provided a unique challenge for the medical care delivery system in Mississippi for weeks after the hurricane. In the 7 years since Hurricane Katrina struck, many lessons have been learned in medical planning, preparation, and response to disasters that have affected Mississippi.