Louisiana: Baton Rouge Louisiana Jobs

Katrina's impact still being felt at LSU

By JACK STRIPLING

Sun staff writer

October 07. 2006 6:01AM

Baton Rouge, La., was largely spared from the wrath of Katrina, but at this time last year University of Florida fans traveling to Louisiana State University for the Gators-Tigers football game were faced with a severe lodging shortage brought on by a surge of evacuees taking shelter in that college town. That situation was not nearly as dire as it had been in the days immediately after the storm ravaged the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. LSU was transformed into a make-shift crisis center. The basketball stadium was used as a hospital, the football stadium and track served as landing pads for helicopters and streets were blocked off by the National Guard. Images of LSU in crisis mode, and the nearby city of in shambles, still resonate with college-bound students and their parents. In what has been dubbed "the Momma effect," the university has seen a decline in its enrollment based in part on parents' fears about sending their children to an area of the country that was the site of one of the nation's worst natural disasters. "So many people from other states saw (the storm) on the news and got concerned about sending their kids to school here," said Christine Cologne, an LSU spokeswoman. This fall, enrollment at LSU dropped by 1,247 students or about 4.1 percent. The enrollment dip took place even though about half of the 2,700 transfer students who came to LSU after the storm last year have decided to stay. Fall enrollment stands at about 29,300 at LSU this year. Some LSU students have also decided to leave school, drawn by the lure of high-paying construction jobs across the state that are connected with the rebuilding effort, according to LSU officials. For students at LSU, Katrina is not only the source of ongoing frustration and sadness, but it has also continually informed classroom discussions. Radhey Sharma, an associate professor in LSU's department of civil engineering, said the construction of the failed levees that were breached amid the storm has provided students with a real-world example of potential weaknesses in levee design. "It really makes a clear difference (in the classroom), because they can relate to the field problems that they have seen or heard," Sharma said. LSU faculty like Sharma have also seen their research put to new applications post-Katrina. Sharma is part of a six-member team, made up of three LSU faculty and three independent consultants, who are conducting a forensic analysis of exactly what went wrong with the levees. Thus far, the Louisiana Government Investigation Team - or "Team Louisiana" - has found that the soils below the levee wall were shifting beneath it, compromising the stability of the structure. Using different soils, adding chemicals and cement could all improve the foundation of the levee, Sharma said. "It basically boils down to what kind of design you want to do and how much money you want to invest," he said. Team Louisiana, which is the official state group investigating the Katrina flooding, is in the process of completing its report on the levees. The biggest impact of Katrina on LSU can be felt in its teaching hospitals in the city of . LSU is actually a statewide system, which includes five academic campuses, 10 hospitals, two health science centers that include medical schools, a dental school, a law school and an agricultural center. The LSU System runs the state's public hospital system, and now serves 340,000 in-patients and 1.5 million out-patients a year. But that total patient population is actually about 600,000 fewer people than were being served before the storm. After Katrina, LSU's Charity Hospital and University Hospital in were both knocked out of commission due to storm damage. With the hospitals shut down, LSU engaged in massive layoffs, letting go of some 2,000 hospital employes, 123 of which were doctors. The lack of hospital space, the exodus of qualified doctors and the virtual discontinuance of mental health services in after Katrina has created a "crisis" of public health, one LSU system official said. "That's a real crisis for the entire state," said Charles Zewe, vice president for communications and external affairs for the LSU System. "It's another offshoot, another effect of Katrina."
Currently, LSU has put together make-shift hospitals in what was a nearly abandoned private hospital west of downtown . LSU has also set up a clinic in a former Lord and Taylor department store

"That's loaded with people every day," Zewe said.

By November, LSU plans to reopen a scaled-down version of University Hospital after $63 million in renovations are completed with money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. By 2012, LSU and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs plan to open a joint medical complex that will cost $1 billion.

As for Charity Hospital, it's been deemed unsalvageable and will be destroyed. Charity is a 67-year-old hospital that was the brainchild of former Gov. Huey Long. The massive hospital's construction is featured in the new film version of "All the King's Men," which was based on a novel of the same title about Long's life.

Upcoming hospital projects may offer a glimmer of hope for residents, but Zewe says the city and the LSU System are still scarred from the recent past and concerned about what the future holds.

"We all engage in wishful thinking that it's all going to be all right," he said. "And it will be all right. But it's still touch and go. Anyone who says it's going to be just like it was before the storm is delusional."

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