Facing The Storm

Cynthia Lenford could not afford her monthly medications without the assistance she receives from the Northwest Louisiana Interfaith Pharmacy.

Pharmacist and board member Doug Boudreaux thanks volunteers for their efforts in serving hurricane victims.

When Hurricane Katrina struck the Louisiana gulf coast on August 29, thousands of residents evacuated to north Louisiana, seeking higher ground. This is a routine experience repeated every year or two as tropical storms reach the warm waters of the Gulf and build into powerful storms. But this storm was anything but routine.

Instead of going back home after a day or two, Louisiana evacuees found themselves stranded in hotels and shelters. Social service systems designed for populations far smaller found an alarming number of people in need and began to look for ways to help their neighbors weather the aftermath of this terrible storm.

In northwest Louisiana, the board of a small, young nonprofit, the Northwest Louisiana Interfaith Pharmacy, gathered to explore the question �What can we do?� There was no doubt in anyone's mind that they would serve Katrina victims in need of medicine, especially those with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Expanding their formulary, the board decided all medications, especially antibiotics, would be supplied to Katrina victims. They contacted other free pharmacies in the state, the Office of Emergency Preparedness, local shelters and health care providers. Board member and compounding pharmacist Doug Boudreaux sent an urgent fax to compounding pharmacies across the country asking for support. The response was extraordinary.

Within days, boxes of medicine began arriving. Led by executive director Janet Martin, volunteers and staff doubled their operating hours to help sort the donated medicines, screen new clients and dispense much needed medications to evacuees. New volunteers knocked on the door to help with the overwhelming task and transported over 100 cases of medicine to clinics and shelters around the state.

Then, Hurricane Rita hit.

Within a couple of weeks FEMA stopped reimbursing retail pharmacies and the Red Cross stopped giving vouchers. In less than a month, the pharmacy doubled its normal service level, dispensing over 720 prescriptions to hurricane victims.

By the end of September, 795 cases of medication had arrived. Sharing their bounty with other free pharmacies struggling to serve startling numbers of displaced Gulf Coast residents, they shipped 100 cases to the Baton Rouge St. Vincent DePaul pharmacy; 75 cases to the St. Vincent DePaul pharmacy in Monroe; 80 cases each to south Louisiana free pharmacies in Houma and Lafayette; and 50 cases to the central Louisiana free pharmacy in Alexandria.

And the boxes of medicine kept coming. By the end of September, medications valued at nearly $1.5 million had been received from pharmacists across America. One pharmacist sent a $10,000 check.

Word of their efforts spread, and unsolicited donations began to pour in. The United Way of Ft. Collins, Colorado and the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado sent $35,000 - each. The Sante Fe Frost Foundation sent $18,000; Louisiana Bar Foundation, $5,000; the Shreveport Times newspaper fund, $10,000; and over $4,500 from area churches and individual donors.

The Northwest Louisiana Interfaith Pharmacy opened May 29, 2003 founded by representatives from a broad spectrum of the faith community. Using the area Homeless Management Information System to take referrals and help track clients, they started serving three northwest Louisiana parishes and hoped to build to a service goal of nine parishes. Little did they know that exactly two years and three months later, this, the youngest of the free pharmacies in Louisiana, would become a distribution center for free medication to community-based partners across the state in the aftermath of historic storms.

It's been almost three months since Katrina hit, - two months since Hurricane Rita, and thousands of evacuees are still waiting to go home. In communities around Louisiana, hurricane victims without prescription coverage are finding one less thing to worry about. They can count on getting medicines to treat life-threatening illnesses, thanks to a network of faith-based nonprofit pharmacies that rose to the occasion, with help from a little nonprofit pharmacy that had the courage and the will to face the storm.