Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals enters the account at a moment when Memorial Medical Center was waiting for evacuation and its staff were trying to prepare patients to leave. A state representative told hospital leaders that he would get everyone out by day’s end. The promise offered a timetable, but the evidence does not show the department’s broader role or whether that representative controlled the resources needed to fulfill it.

The State Representative at Memorial

On Wednesday morning, plant manager Eric Yancovich told incident commander Susan Mulderick that an official had arrived at the hospital and said he was “the cavalry.” The very tall, bald man, dressed in black pants and a yellow shirt and carrying a radio, identified himself as a representative of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. In the confusion, Mulderick quickly forgot his name. He told her to get everyone ready to go, saying the hospital would be cleared by the end of the day.

The representative’s arrival followed a night in which Memorial staff had been trying to secure outside help. The hospital faced rising floodwaters, and its command team was preparing to move patients toward exit points. His instruction gave the staff a near-term expectation of evacuation, but the account does not identify him further or describe his authority within the department.

Preparation and the Promise of Evacuation

At about seven that morning, Memorial’s incident command team met and adopted a plan to consolidate patients and resources near first- and second-floor exits. Staff retrieved color-coded triage armbands: green for patients able to walk, yellow for those needing assistance, red for those wholly dependent on care, and black for patients with do-not-resuscitate orders. The bands were intended to make patients’ needs legible as the hospital prepared to move them.

The representative’s assurance that the hospital would be cleared by day’s end therefore arrived alongside practical preparations already under way inside Memorial. The record supports the timing and content of his message, but does not connect the department directly to the triage plan or establish that the representative devised it.

The Wider State Response and the Limits of the Record

The state’s response also appears through separate emergency-management activity. On Tuesday evening, Tenet regional business director Michael Arvin contacted the state EMS bureau about rising water at Memorial and Lindy Boggs Medical Center. A state EMS worker logged both hospitals as a high-priority evacuation mission. A volunteer was sent from Baton Rouge to meet fifty-five boats and assist with evacuating them, but later reported that he had not connected with the boats; he had been told they were stopped because of darkness and reports of snipers. The account does not establish that this EMS bureau operation was directed by the Department of Health and Hospitals, so the two appearances should not be treated as a single documented chain of command.

Taken together, these episodes show state officials and emergency responders entering a hospital crisis in which staff needed both a plan and transportation, while communications and coordination remained uncertain. The department is specifically represented by the official who promised to clear Memorial, but the available evidence does not say whether the promised evacuation occurred on his timetable or define the department’s responsibility for the wider response.