When the Levees Failed, Children’s Mercy Prevailed
20 Years Later: A Hurricane Katrina Retrospective
“When children are in need, you reach out and help. That’s what we’ve been doing for more than 100 years in Kansas City.”
Devastation. In late August 2005, the world watched as news outlets reported on a tropical depression that started near the Bahamas. This storm would grow into what we know today as Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 hurricane that would take the lives of over 1,800 people, leave millions homeless and go down in history as one of the strongest hurricanes in the U.S.
On August 29, 2005, the eye of the storm hit the Gulf Coast near New Orleans, causing the levees to fail and the waters of Lake Pontchartrain to pour into the city.
The following day, Randall L. O’Donnell, PhD, then President and CEO of Children’s Mercy, reached out to his fellow children’s hospital colleague, Steve Worley, then CEO of New Orleans Children’s Hospital, to offer help. By August 31, New Orleans Children’s Hospital needed to be evacuated immediately.
Dr. O’Donnell orchestrated a massive transport plan with our Critical Care Transport team, but a mission of this magnitude required some additional help. So he reached out to former U.S. Senator, the late Christopher “Kit” Bond, and former Governor Matt Blunt to secure assistance from the 139th Missouri Air National Guard. Before the day was done, the team rescued more than 20 pediatric patients — some with a parent, some without — and brought them to Children’s Mercy to provide the compassionate care they needed.
To recognize the 20th anniversary of this monumental event, please join us in a moment of reflection by watching the following video from 2005. Then, read on to hear the stories of patients who were rescued that day and reflections from team members who were part of this unifying event.
A Mother’s Love
Arnita Lister could not have predicted the year she would have in 2005. But her deep faith and perseverance helped this mother of 3-year-old twin boys, I’zelion and I’xavion, survive the ordeal.
Early on, doctors noticed I’zelion had an enlarged bladder. His posterior urethral valves didn’t completely form as they should. This caused bacteria and urine that should normally flush out from the bladder to back up into his kidneys, leading to urinary tract infections and severe damage to his bladder. Eventually, I’zelion needed a kidney transplant and bladder augmentation. In February 2005, Arnita donated one of her kidneys to I’zelion and things were looking up, as evidenced by I’zelion’s megawatt smile. Then, summer arrived.
I’zelion had to be re-hospitalized for over a month due to high-grade fevers. Arnita stayed with him at the New Orleans Children’s Hospital while the doctors closely monitored him and worked to get his fevers down. I’xavion was being cared for by Arnita’s mother in Shreveport, La. During the last few days of August, news started spreading of an incoming hurricane, and it looked to be really, really bad.
“This was our first experience with a hurricane,” said Arnita. “When we learned of it, the hospital staff was boarding up windows and rationing out food, not knowing how long we would be there.”
As the storm made landfall, everyone at the hospital braced for the worst. As I’zelion slept, Arnita prayed.
“I was scared to death! To hear this storm come through, it sounded like a train roaring. I didn’t know if we would make it through the night,” Arnita exclaimed through tears. “I was crying and praying, then my baby woke up out of nowhere and said, ‘Momma, we’re going to be okay.’ I knew that was confirmation from God.”
Once the generators and air conditioning were lost and toilets couldn’t be flushed, administrators knew they had to evacuate quickly before the floodwaters reached the hospital perimeter. They could see the flooded riverbank from the hospital. With no time to spare, staff started evacuating the patients, using their own personal vehicles to get patients to the airport any way they could.
A Historic Rescue Mission
Meanwhile, as arrangements were underway at Children’s Mercy, two CM Critical Care Transport team members flew our twin-engine transport airplane to New Orleans to begin rescuing patients. Two additional C-130 planes from the Missouri National Guard were already in the Gulf area, and Dr. O’Donnell arranged for them to be available for this mission. Finally, eight more Children’s Mercy team members made their way to New Orleans with assistance from the National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing from St. Joseph. They were ready to begin evacuating patients.
“Coming into New Orleans, we saw the devastation from the air. Everything was underwater. We landed at the International Airport in New Orleans with a scene similar to how you would picture a war zone. There was no power, aircraft were everywhere moving in and out, and there was a feeling of chaos,” said Christy Dressler, MHA, RRT-NPS, C-NPT, CMTE, Children’s Mercy Transport Respiratory Therapist in 2005. “We unloaded the plane we were in and were met by the Incident Commander at the airport. He informed us our patients would be brought to us in 1 hour and after they arrived, we had only 1 hour to be off the ground. Without power, there were no runway lights for us to take off.”
Once the 20+ patients and a handful of family members arrived, they were loaded onto the planes and on their way to safety and continued medical care. While they were grateful to be escaping the danger zone of Hurricane Katrina, they would be in for a surprise when they landed.
This Ain’t Texas
As the planes landed safely at the downtown airport in Kansas City with their precious cargo of patients, there was some confusion among the families. In all the chaos of the rescue mission, many patients thought they were being taken to Texas. But as always, the Kansas City community came through with extraordinary support and care for these new patients and their families. Ambulances were awaiting the arrival of the planes and safely transported families to our Children’s Mercy Adele Hall and Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas locations, where the children were each admitted. The patients ranged in age from 3 months to 23 years and had a wide range of conditions, from a collapsed lung to cystic fibrosis to leukemia.
The staff at Children’s Mercy, along with the Kansas City community, rolled out the red carpet for the patients and their families. Everyone wanted to help. Because the patients couldn’t bring much with them during the evacuation, our Philanthropy and Social Work departments stepped in to raise funds and organize lodging, clothing, transportation and more for families. The hospital established the Family Support Fund, which was a way to receive donations from the public for families in need after such harrowing circumstances.
“I had never experienced treatment like that before. They treated those kids like kings and queens,” said Arnita. “The caregivers really had compassion for their jobs and for the patients and families. I was overwhelmed with the kindness. They really showed that they cared!”
The Return Home
After I’zelion stayed at Children’s Mercy for a while for treatment, it was time for him and Arnita to return home to Louisiana, though the hospitality and care they received at Children’s Mercy was so amazing, she really didn’t want to leave. But her twin son was at home in Shreveport awaiting his brother and mother’s return. Unlike many, their home was spared by Hurricane Katrina. But what greeted Arnita and I’zelion when they arrived back home to Louisiana was shocking: Hurricane Rita, another Category 5 hurricane! Again, their home was spared.
After such a tumultuous 2005, things improved for the family. In 2006, I’zelion had bladder augmentation surgery. His new kidney from Arnita would serve him well for many years and in 2022, he received a new kidney from a deceased donor that better fit his adult body. He would later meet the family, at their request. Today, 23-year-old I’zelion is doing well and getting regular checkups. He’s also a college student in Louisiana studying Business Management with plans to graduate next year!
Stacey Koenig, CCLS
2005 Role: Director of Child Life, Creative Arts Therapies, Education, Volunteer and Guest Services
Current Role: Sr. Director, Patient and Family Services
I will never forget the evening I received a call from Karen Cox around 6 p.m. She simply said, “We’re going to need you back at the hospital.” That moment marked the beginning of an extraordinary chapter in our hospital’s history. News quickly spread that we would be receiving pediatric patients and families evacuated from Children’s Hospital in New Orleans via military transport. These families had no idea where they were headed, and when they landed in Kansas City, many thought they were in Texas. The confusion was evident, but so was the relief they showed.
Our Child Life team immediately stepped in to help children acclimate to their new environment, supporting them through procedures like dressing changes, port access and IV placements. We transformed the Same Day Surgery waiting room into a family reunification center, ensuring parents and children could reconnect, receive clean clothes and get a meal.
The outpouring of support from our community was overwhelming — people offered cars, homes, clothes, toys and more. Volunteer and Guest Services, alongside Philanthropy, worked tirelessly to manage the flood of donations and ensure they reached the families who needed them most. We also worked with community organizations and churches to share the outpouring of donations. This wasn’t a short-term response; it lasted for months and required the dedication of every staff member and volunteer.
What stands out most is the humility and resilience of the families we served. Despite the chaos and uncertainty, they remained flexible and gracious as we pieced together their children’s medical histories and needs. The experience was a powerful reminder of the strength of community, the importance of teamwork, and the deep impact of compassionate care. Hurricane Katrina changed all of us — and it brought out the very best in our hospital and our city!
Jennifer Stallbaumer-Rouyer, LCSW, LSCSW
2005 role: Emergency Room/After Hours Social Worker
Current role: Emergency Room/After Hours Social Worker
As a social worker, our main role was meeting the vast needs of families who were displaced from their homes locally and sent to another city. We received children who were seriously injured and in need of longer-term stabilization and care. Sometimes parents could not accompany them. I spent time on the phone and in person comforting those traumatized by their loss. There was an ongoing need for communication and coordination with family out of town.
When a parent, caregiver or family member was able to accompany their children to Kansas City, it felt like a sinking ship at times with so many needs: food, shelter, clothing, assistance with getting important documents, helping families manage the situation at home in New Orleans while being here in Kansas City.
Ronald McDonald House and the Family Room were invaluable for these families. Back then, any family could use the in-house Ronald McDonald House for food, showers and respite. The community in Kansas City and the hospital was so generous, particularly in the beginning. As stays in the hospital extended or families ended up stranded in Kansas City without a way to return to New Orleans, the resources really started to dry up. It was challenging at times to navigate some situations of bias that influenced the distribution of resources. Families were traumatized and lost in a new city without short- or long-term resources. However, hospital social workers collaborated closely with chaplains and child life specialists and we stepped in while the community stepped up.
Ramona Rosson
2005 role: Gift Processor
Current role: Manager of Philanthropic Gift Administration
Remembering 20 years ago, I was like everyone else, glued to the news and so sad to hear about the devastation Katrina was unleashing on Louisiana. The next morning, I turned the news on before getting ready for work for updates. There were local news channels outside Children’s Mercy taking statements from hospital staff. They were sharing how Children’s Mercy would be sending helicopters and airplanes to evacuate patients and provide medical care. At the end, they said, if you’d like to help by making a gift, please call (816) 346-1300 or mail your gift to our main address.
My first thought was, we’re about to get very busy! I arrived at work that day an hour early and our phones were already ringing and kept ringing all day. The community’s response was immediate and they wanted to help! A few days later, instead of mail bundles, we were receiving mail tubs delivered, and this went on for weeks. We would open letters all afternoon to prepare for the next day’s deposit. In the weeks that followed, we received thousands of donations. I’ve never seen anything like it since.
During that time, I just remember feeling so proud to work at Children’s Mercy and to be a part of the difference we’re making in the lives of children and their families every day, everywhere, who need us. It was then, as it is now, an amazing place!
Nicki Johnson, CCLS
2005 role: Child Life Specialist
Current role: Director of Philanthropic Volunteer Services and In-kind Giving
In 2005, I was working as a Child Life Specialist here at Children’s Mercy. At the time, we handled all the in-kind donations to the hospital. Lucy Raab was my sidekick in managing all the patients that arrived and the huge amount of donations that lined the hallways of the hospital behind our Volunteer Services office back hallway.
We spent days sifting through the items donated from our generous community, from clothing to stuffed animals to messages of love and support. We provided the donated items not only to the kids, but to the parents that arrived also. It also served as an opportunity to give goods to other patients in the hospital as the community rallied in support of all our kids. It felt like a big warm hug around Children’s Mercy. Our community always rallies when we have a need.
LeAnn Wilson, RRT
2005 role: Director of Transport
Current role: Resuscitation Program Manager
I remember everyone was watching the news and the weather about Hurricane Katrina for days...then when it was about to hit, we got the call. Critical Care Pediatric Specialty Transport Teams in the Midwest were being called on to evacuate the smallest of patients from harm’s way. Little did we know when we accepted the call for help that it would be this momentous.
Dr. O’Donnell, President and CEO at the time, called an emergency meeting in the administrative conference room and asked me which airports we would use and what means we had to communicate with teams. Before you knew it, everyone did their part. The crews started packing up equipment, isolettes, extra med packs and anything we thought we would need for an extended flight. Next, we found out that we would be bringing patients home in a C-130. Children’s Mercy had never done this before, but we were equipped with adrenaline and skilled teams that we knew could do the job, a support system at CM that would keep track of all the teams and a fleet of ambulances to bring them home from the airport when they landed.
I remember it seemed like hours upon hours of anticipation to hear back from a team, their status and to connect them to our medical directors for any protocol or orders they needed. Time was of the essence and I felt like every single crew member we sent over there was my own family member. I was stationed at the hospital for the duration of the operation and just sat by the hand-held radio for any news. I remember getting an ETA of their landing at Charles Wheeler (Downtown Airport) and I just had a sigh of relief. They had done it! I watched the TV as the local news channels covered the landing, the off-loading of patients, one after another… they just kept coming out of that C-130 to CM. Teams sweating like no other but it was incredible to see the look of tired accomplishment on their faces when they got to CM with their patient.
I met them in the ER bay and made sure everyone was accounted for. They went above and beyond the call of duty for those patients and braved a hurricane to bring them to safety. CM was so proud of all of them and they were happy to turn over care to their new hospital home: CM. The families, some of which came with the patients, were so grateful to everyone. Hats off to them and to the pilots that got them home safely. I am sure this was a memory they will someday tell all their kids …. you always want to help others when you work at CM, and this was an amazing opportunity to do just that.
Christy Dressler, MHA, RRT-NPS, C-NPT, CMTE
2005 role: Transport Respiratory Therapist
Current role: Director, Critical Care Transport and Transfer Center
Cindy Hubbard, BSN, RN, CCRN, C-NPT
2005 role: Transport Nurse
Current role: Transport Education Coordinator
When [the transport team] left KC, we were told that we would be landing in New Orleans and then be shuttled to the children’s hospital to pick up our patients and the aircraft that was bringing us back to KC would meet us there. What we experienced was very different.
Coming into New Orleans, we saw the devastation from the air. Everything was underwater. We landed at the International Airport in New Orleans with a scene like how you would picture a war zone. There was no power, aircraft everywhere were moving in and out, and there was a feeling of chaos.
We unloaded the plane we were in and were met by the Incident Commander at the airport. He informed us our patients would be brought to us in 1 hour and after they arrived, we had only 1 hour to be off the ground. Without power, there were no runway lights for us to take off. We went to meet the National Guard crew that would be taking us and our patients back to KC. The National Guard crew informed us they had just dropped a load of freight in Mississippi and weren’t configured for patient transfers, so we immediately began assembling stretchers in the aircraft.
Almost exactly 1 hour after we had landed, our patients arrived, in a caravan of any vehicles that were available to move people … the backs of pickup trucks, cars, RVs. We loaded over 20 patients and at least one family member onto the plane with us. Some of the patients were wards of the state and had no one. Only a few patients came with any form of documentation and several simply had a name and date of birth written on their arm or a scrap piece of paper. The other family members were loaded onto the second C-130.
Because we were in a larger aircraft, the ride was much louder, longer, and wasn’t temperature controlled like our typical transports. During flight, Cindy was primarily caring for an oncology patient who decompensated and required multiple interventions. Without any ventilators, Christy had to manually ventilate two patients, simultaneously, for 3 straight hours. The 12 of us from Children’s Mercy Critical Care Transport were spread out across the plane providing all levels of care, wherever it was needed.
Cindy remembers there was one baby who was a ward of the state and had no caregivers. She was holding the baby but when she had to divert attention to the patient who was decompensating, she handed the baby to a mother of another patient on board. We found out later that the mother ended up adopting the baby.
About halfway through the flight, Christy remembers one mother asking her and another team member where we were going. Up to that point, the mother assumed we were going to Houston and had no idea we were headed for KC. Ultimately, she didn’t care. She just wanted a safe place for her and her child.
After a long flight, we landed in KC and were met by a fleet of ambulances from across the region who responded to help transport the kids from the airport to the hospital.
Katrina was a humbling and rewarding experience. Even though we transport patients every day, heading into a disaster zone with very little resources, where we had to improvise quickly, was extremely challenging. While we couldn’t help every child, for those 20+ kids and their families, that trip to KC altered the trajectory of their lives and made a lasting impact on ours.
Angela Marks, LCSW, LSCSW
2005 role: Care Assistant, Inpatient Floor
Current role: Social Worker, Intensive Care Nursery
I have worked at Children’s Mercy for 25 years. In 2005, I worked as a Care Assistant on the Inpatient floor at Children’s Mercy South (now Children’s Mercy Hospital Kansas). I now am a Clinical Social Worker in the NICU at Adele Hall.
We received a young boy from Louisiana who was 8 years old, I believe. He arrived with his mother and was quite shaken up. I think he had a very bad case of cellulitis and was on IV antibiotics. He came with only his mother. He and his mother only had the clothes they had on, that was it. They had lost everything.
I started a fund throughout the unit for the family and went to Target for items they needed. I remember buying the young boy clothes, shoes, socks, a backpack and underwear. We also bought clothes and items for his mother. She needed bras, underwear, tennis shoes, socks and clothes. I think we filled over 2 shopping carts. I remember speaking to the store manager about giving us a discount as to the origin of our purchase, but to no avail. I made the choice to spend an additional $200 of my own money because I knew it was just the right thing to do. I had a home, a job, and all the basic life necessities. They had lost everything.
They were so appreciative. Our nurses and staff really surrounded them and tried to be as supportive as possible. Once his treatment was complete, getting him home was another challenge as their home was no longer there. I think they ended up going to another family member’s home in Texas. Our entire team felt very honored to be a tiny part of this family’s story and hope they remember their time at Children’s Mercy fondly. It was a very special memory for me. I do believe we heard from him months later with an update.
Geoffrey Allen, MD
2005 role: Medical Director, Transport
Current role: Assistant Chair, Dept. of Pediatrics; Division Director, Critical Care Medicine
Rand O'Donnell, who was our CEO at the time, asked us to get prepared to go provide some assistance to the children’s hospital in New Orleans. They'd had some conversations with the Missouri National Guard and organized two C-130 military transport planes to meet us in New Orleans. We flew our aircraft down with all of our supplies. Our Critical Care Transport team got together at the transport center, planned everything, launched and flew down to New Orleans.
We landed on the tarmac at Louis Armstrong Airport and it really looked like a military operation — it was loud. There were Black Hawk helicopters landing everywhere. The airport itself was shut down and there was no electricity. So we landed, then connected with family members and staff where they had this caravan of just cars and kids and families. Some of the kids were connected to technology and everybody just kind of lined up. Most of the kids were not critically ill, but I can remember one kid who'd had a bone marrow transplant who was febrile and pretty sick. We had limited capabilities of what we could do, but just getting everybody evacuated was the first goal. I remember there were about 20-plus kids and their families and we loaded them all up on the C-130 aircraft and came back to Kansas City. We landed at the downtown airport and worked on shuttling and transporting everybody to Children's Mercy.
It was pretty remarkable to be right here in the middle of the country and still have the capability to really help bring kids to medical care that they needed and to a community that rallied around providing support to the families. So many people were displaced from their homes, so parents didn't have clothes, they didn't have anything. I think the whole community leaned in to help the families.
Sherry McCool, MHA, RRT-NPS, CMTE
2005 role: Assistant Director of Operations for Transport
Current role: Senior Director of Patient Progression
I was not on the plane, but I was involved in the ground operations here at Children's Mercy. I helped coordinate all of the ambulances that we had to transport the patients from the C-130 aircrafts to the hospital, as well as the preparation of the crew before they left for New Orleans.
When we got the notification that the Children's Hospital of New Orleans needed assistance, we had to figure out how to get aircraft down there. When they activated the National Guard, those aircraft were not medically configured, so we had to gather a lot of equipment and supplies to send on an aircraft to go down to meet the C-130s. I was involved in that and then as the crew was getting prepped for leaving on the aircraft, we were getting faxes of handwritten lists of the patients because literally all of the computer systems were down. They were tagging pieces of paper on the patients and we were just getting handwritten lists of who the patients were.
So when they did that, we jumped into action. The crews left, and here in the background, we were working with the city and the Mid America Regional Council to activate a citywide incident command. Children's Mercy didn't have enough ambulances and resources to get all of these patients from the airport to Children's Mercy, so we had to coordinate with all of them. I think we had around 20 ambulances that came from multiple different agencies.
It was night when they landed with the patients, but we had about 20 ambulances with their lights lined up at the downtown airport. We had police there also. I remember when the C-130s landed, they were so powerful that they knocked over all the police motorcycles that were sitting there. We also had our Security team buses and the Security team there loading family members onto them. So I was really more coordination on that end and getting the hospital prepared to accept those 20+ patients and their families. Some of the children didn't have family members with them, but some did.
When they loaded the C-130, they loaded the sickest patients first. Then when we went to offload, it took a long time to get the sick patients off. Reflecting back, that's a lesson learned. You always want to load your sickest patients last so you can get them unloaded first.
We sent an aircraft full of equipment to New Orleans and another airplane down to Baton Rouge, where they were staging some aeromedical things and transporting patients. So we also had an individual team and an aircraft there. We sent an aircraft with supplies for the C-130 because we were going to try to configure non-medically configured aircraft with oxygen and stretchers and all those things.
Meanwhile, we were still having transport requests coming in that we were covering for our immediate region. There was a lot going on in that 24 to 48 hours…a lot. But we still maintained all of our operations and missed no transports here in our community. So I was pretty impressed.
Bradley Warady, MD
2005 role: Director, Division of Nephrology and Director, Dialysis and Kidney Transplantation
Current role: The McLoughlin Family Endowed Chair in Nephrology and Director, Dialysis and Kidney Transplantation
I remember hearing that we were potentially going to get some patients from Katrina, although at the time I don't think we knew for sure that they were coming, until they actually arrived. When they got here, I talked to some of the parents and they were surprised they were in Kansas City and not in Texas where they originally thought they were going. I think there was so much chaos in New Orleans at the time that people just got loaded onto the planes and they shipped them out.
A number of us were allocated patients depending upon what their disorder was. In my case, the 4 kids that were on dialysis and 1 transplant patient were sent to Nephrology and that's who we cared for. We didn't really know how long we’d be caring for them because we recognized that many of them may have lost their homes in New Orleans. Where would they go after they were with us? So there was a lot of confusion, but our goal was to just provide the care.
For these kids, we wanted to give them what they needed, not only from a medical perspective, but also from a comfort and emotional perspective because they were uprooted from their homes and didn't really know what the future held for them in the short term or the long term. We had to give them a shoulder to lean on. Some of the kids’ parents weren't even here yet, so we were sort of acting as their surrogate parents, if you will, for a while. It was scary for them because they were in a location they had never been to before and were with people they had never been with before, so we had to sort of comfort these kids until their parents arrived, as well as provide them with the medical care they required.
I believe we had some calls between the staff there in New Orleans, even though they were evacuating their staff there too. This gave us some idea of what was going on with the kids and what their needs were, but we didn't have any medical records to go on.
We gave them support in a very uneasy time for them. We showed them some Kansas City and Children's Mercy hospitality. Rand O'Donnell, who was our CEO at the time, was having conversations with the folks in New Orleans and said we would welcome the kids here and provide any help we can.
I just remember everybody at Children's Mercy, the entire staff, just bent over backwards to do everything that we could to provide these kids with the care they needed, both from a psychosocial standpoint and a medical standpoint. That's what I remember most of all. And I think we were very, very successful in doing so.