Do you remember Katrina? Ya know that time when our country got caught with their pants down? I remember thinking  “the lawsuits from this are going to go on for years”.   The New York Times has given a glimpse of that this weekend. Posted just this past few days was this:

The LaCoste trial is set to begin on Monday. “This could be a new theory of liability against health care institutions — lack of emergency preparedness,” said Kristin McMahon, an attorney and chief claims officer for IronHealth, a company that insures hospitals. “The courts across the country will be looking at it.”

The case has already been precedent-setting in Louisiana. The state’s Supreme Court decided the allegations were based on general negligence claims, as opposed to medical malpractice in which damages would be capped at $500,000. This markedly increased hospital owners’ potential liability.

Mrs. LaCoste’s family alleges that the hospital was negligent for having inadequate emergency power systems, evacuation plans and floodwater protection. They say a fuel pump that failed after it was flooded caused the higher generator to shut down — an event they say could have been avoided if the hospital had invested less than $10,000 in a submersible pump.

The hospital’s owners argue in court filings that Hurricane Katrina was an “act of God” that could not be foreseen, that the hospital was not negligent, and that it would be unreasonable to expect a hospital to be impervious to all of the unlikely catastrophes its emergency plans contemplate, including tornadoes and a “terrorist event.”

The hospital in question had two power generators – one on the main level and one on the roof of the power plant.  The ground level generator failed when the flood came, and the rooftop generator failed when a fuel pump was submurged and failed.

So what could they have done to have been prepared for this situation?