Rayne Rouce
Doctor uses triage skills to get help to storm victims
R ayne Rouce, a pediatric hematologistoncologist at Texas Children’s Cancer Center, experienced Hurricane Katrina as a college student living in New Orleans. During Hurricane Ike, she lost all of her possessions and saw the storm’s devastation first-hand working as a medical student in a Galveston hospital.
So when Hurricane Harvey’s waters continued to rise on Sunday in late August, Rouce felt fortunate to be high and dry in her fifth-floor Galleria-area apartment. The native Houstonian changed her Facebook profile from private to public and posted a message: She had medical training, electricity and internet. Did anyone need her to call first responders and wait on hold?
Rouce, 36, was inundated with requests.
She enlisted the help of two friends, Catherine Gillespie and Vita Salsman, and quickly divided up the calls. Working virtually, the three women tracked rescue needs of trapped Houstonians, noting who needed medical attention, which homes had water inside, and which had a second floor that could be accessed.
Rouce likened those first 48 hours to a triage situation in an emergency room. The pleas they received from strangers on Facebook were chilling, she said.
She downloaded the walkietalkie app Zello to communicate with the Cajun Navy. She created a map of their locations and dispatched them to the frightened families. She enlisted the help of Houston Off Road Recovery, another group of volunteers she calls “good Samaritans.” She called 911 to report urgent needs.
By Wednesday, Rouce’s team had stayed awake for nearly 72 hours and dispatched responders to rescue more than 100 families.
They then turned their efforts to recovery. Using both her professional network and the following she had built on Facebook, Rouce gathered donations of medical supplies, food, money and gift cards. She created a program for people to “adopt” families who lost everything.
“This was a disaster that did not discriminate,” Rouce said, noting the varied community leaders and churches that asked how they could help. “No one saw color, religion, economic status or politics.”
She didn’t stop there, either. After Hurricane Maria decimated Puerto Rico a few weeks later, Rouce helped locate a cargo plane and volunteers to deliver emergency supplies to the island.
She found the pilot on Facebook.