Direct Relief Scales Hurricane Readiness at Health Facilities in Regions Still Reeling from Prior Years' Storms

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., May 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Direct Relief is mobilizing its largest-ever push to prepare hurricane-prone areas in the U.S. and Caribbean for the fast-approaching 2019 hurricane season, which begins June 1.

The organization has expanded to 13 U.S. states and territories and 17 foreign locales its decade-long program of prepositioning "Hurricane Prep Modules" at strategically located health facilities in at-risk areas.

The portable modules are designed to address the predictable risks during the immediate post-storm period when supply lines are often compromised, and populations are displaced. 

Each module contains more than 200 medications and other health items requested most often by health providers during emergencies, including trauma and wound care supplies, antibiotics, and medicines for diabetes, hypertension and other chronic health conditions that if unmanaged become acute crises.

Direct Relief initially designed the modules based on Hurricane Katrina after-action analyses that found medications and medical supplies, had they been available, would have averted health emergencies among evacuees.

In the U.S., Direct Relief is staging 75 hurricane prep modules at health facilities across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Texas, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Virginia.

Internationally, Direct Relief is prepositioning hurricane modules in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Fiji, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nicaragua, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu.

"Direct Relief's intensified efforts, in partnership with extraordinary local organizations, are borne from sharp concern and to avert the tragic consequences caused by hurricanes in recent years," said Thomas Tighe, Direct Relief CEO.

With preparations underway for the 2019 hurricane season, Direct Relief is continuing to support communities still reeling from the punishing hurricanes of the past two years.

In Puerto Rico, where power outages caused by Hurricane Maria resulted in the loss of as much as 80 percent of the island's temperature-sensitive medication, Direct Relief is helping meet the ongoing need for medical resources and equipping health centers with solar power and battery backup systems, letting them maintain operations even when the power grid fails.

In Texas, Direct Relief recently granted $1.4 million to 11 free and charitable clinics to help address the lingering effects from Hurricane Harvey. The latest round of funding follows more than $27 million in material and financial assistance provided by Direct Relief to Texas health facilities since August 2017, when Harvey made landfall.

In the Carolinas and Florida, where the devastating effects of Hurricanes Florence and Michael are still visible, Direct Relief is continuing to support health centers and clinics with medical resources, having delivered more than 890 shipments of requested medical resources totaling more than $21 million.

For more information on Direct Relief's hurricane preparedness and response efforts, visit https://www.directrelief.org/emergency/hurricanes/.

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SOURCE Direct Relief