Louisiana State University

Baton Rouge, LA
Sean O’Keefe, Chancellor
34,128 Students

Louisiana State University launched an immediate, extensive response to Hurricane Katrina. An estimated 5,000 students contributed 25,000 hours of service. The largest field hospital in U.S. history was set up at LSU’s Baton Rouge campus, where more than 3,000 students and hundreds of faculty and staff pitched in to assist medical staff, help with logistics, and offer comfort and companionship to the approximately 6,000 patients who were among the 15,000 evacuees who arrived at the campus.

LSU and its School of Veterinary Medicine provided animal rescue by taking the lead in what was the largest pet rescue in U.S. history. Working with local and out-of-state volunteer veterinarians, they cared for nearly 2,800 rescued pets and large animals. In addition, the LSU Veterinary Medicine Equine Clinic established the Horse Hurricane Helpline shortly after Katrina with faculty, staff, and students fielding calls around the clock to support rescuing horses, mules, goats, and potbellied pigs.

The university postponed classes the week after the hurricane, and students continued to offer their free time once classes resumed. In addition to the on campus activities, LSU established the New Orleans Recovery Project, resulting in three busloads of LSU students, faculty, and staff traveling to New Orleans to work with homeowners to repair hurricane-damaged homes. Later, 50 students participated in a service-learning project that trained unskilled participants from the 9th Ward, who built three houses in a month.

The Katrina Volunteer Hotline that LSU established operated for 13 days, fielding 6,495 calls. The hotline helped LSU Residential Life to house 550 displaced students, found 100 matches for displaced families in the LSU community, and also helped families locate relatives.

The LSU projects met real community needs through a strong collaboration among faculty, staff, students, and community members that brought order to an area devastated by Hurricane Katrina.