Hey, I'm Flor Lichtenen, and you're listening to Science Friday. Today in the show, we are looking back at one of the most devastating disasters in modern U.S. history. Hurricane Katrina. 20 years ago, today, it made landfall in Louisiana, and the levees designed to protect the city failed.

Huge swaths of the city flooded, people were trapped in their homes, at their jobs, and in hospitals.

Around 1,600 people were inside Charity Hospital, the city's only public hospital as it flooded.

One of the doctors there was Erica Fisher, a New Orleans

local who was born in charity. And when Katrina made landfall, she was a resident working in the

emergency room. As the city flooded, she and her colleagues fought for days to keep their patients

alive. Dr. Fisher is now an emergency medicine physician at the

University Medical Center in New Orleans. She's here to reflect on Hurricane Katrina and the

vulnerability of our health care systems in the face of disasters. Dr. Fisher, welcome to Science

Friday. Thank you so much for having me.

Before we really get into it, what is this anniversary like for you?

So this anniversary, it brings back so many painful memories about, you know, what the city

went through during Hurricane Katrina. It also brings back memories of, you know, me being stuck at a hospital and unable to communicate

with my family who were also still in the city. So it's so emotional for me to reflect on everything

that happened during Hurricane Katrina. Well, I appreciate you coming on the show to reflect with us today.

Sure.

Katrina made landfall August 29, 2005.

How did the day unfold?

Okay, so I was asked to be on the activation team, which is the team that usually respond

and stay in the city during natural disasters.

So, you know, I had to report to the hospital the Sunday prior to Hurricane Katrina

because Hurricane Katrina made landfall that Monday.

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