BATON ROUGE, La. - Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina swept onto the Gulf Coast, causing damage, displacement and disruption. Like communities across the state, many Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana (Louisiana Blue) employees experienced flooded homes, separated families and uncertainty about the future. Louisiana Blue’s district office in New Orleans was damaged.
Hurricane Katrina also had a big impact on healthcare. Many hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices in Southeast Louisiana closed for long periods. Louisiana Blue members evacuated and were not sure how to find in-network healthcare providers or fill their prescriptions in a new place. But, focused on the company’s mission to improve the health and lives of Louisianians, employees got back to work as soon as the storm passed. They reached out to members, providers, brokers, employer group leaders and each other to help their fellow Louisianians avoid going without needed care. They worked together to locate the missing and shared information as quickly as possible.
“Our outlook at the time was ‘Your health comes first. We’ll worry about the rest later,’” said Rod Teamer, Louisiana Blue director, Workforce Connection and Belonging. “We wanted to reassure our friends and neighbors that we were here for them and we’d help connect them with the care they needed. With all the stress everyone already had, trying to keep their families together and figure out how they’d rebuild, we didn’t want their healthcare coverage to be another concern.”
Louisiana Blue’s Support for Hurricane Katrina Recovery Efforts
Following Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana Blue and the Louisiana Blue Foundation supported many relief and recovery efforts through grants and sponsorships. These included funding medical care for evacuees in shelters, a Volunteers of America Southeast Louisiana crisis hotline and a benefit concert for Dillard University students who were affected by the storm.
The company began a partnership with Rebuilding Together New Orleans. This nonprofit organization, founded in 1988, expanded their outreach in response to Hurricane Katrina. In the past 20 years, Louisiana Blue has helped the organization rebuild homes for families across the city, primarily assisting veterans. Team Blue employee volunteers have participated in multiple rebuilding projects over the past two decades.
This week, a Team Blue crew took part in the organization’s 20th Anniversary Service Week. Volunteers repainted and made touchups to a home in the North Broadmoor neighborhood that got eight feet of water during Hurricane Katrina. The owners, now in their 80s, have lived there more than 50 years and spent two years rebuilding after the storm.
Teamer, who began working at Louisiana Blue the week before Hurricane Katrina, was one of many employees personally affected. His home flooded, and his family was unable to return to New Orleans for more than a year. Teamer said he got through this time by focusing on rebuilding efforts, with the support of his colleagues.
“My boss asked me to help lead our community outreach work in response to Hurricane Katrina,” Teamer said. “I met with members, I planned several of our volunteer events and I reached out to other New Orleanians to encourage them to come back to the city. By focusing on what I and we as a company could do for others, I didn’t let myself get too down about my own situation. I could see a way forward, and my coworkers joined me in that effort.”
Louisiana Blue employees gave thousands of dollars in personal donations to various nonprofit and community organizations leading hurricane recovery efforts, which the company matched. In response to Katrina, the company launched its Employees First Fund, in which employees give money to help their coworkers during times of crisis. The fund continues today. Louisiana Blue employees’ donations immediately assisted their affected coworkers with recovery from Hurricane Rita, which hit Southwest Louisiana in September 2005, and more recently, the 2016 floods, COVID-19 pandemic and hurricanes Laura and Ida.
Louisiana Blue Healthcare Economist Mike Bertaut, who began working at the company a year before Hurricane Katrina, reflected on his experiences in a recent Straight Talk post.
“Louisiana Blue impressed me during those years. Beyond anything I had ever seen ... My mom always says you have to find the positive in every tragedy to go on living. So I think about the positives around Hurricane Katrina. My life has been built up because of knowing Rod [Teamer]. I have new family members because of the people I housed. And without Katrina, none of those things would have happened. And I also have the blessing of working for a company that went above and beyond to do the right thing when the situation was at its worst,” Bertaut said.
Our Home, Louisiana
Following Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana Blue employees joined a Louisiana-based production company (Digital FX) and New Orleans composer Jep Epstein to create the “Our Home, Louisiana” campaign. The campaign was designed to instill pride and hope in Louisianians as many were deciding whether to stay in the state and rebuild in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita or leave and start their lives over elsewhere. TV spots highlighted the state’s strength, spirit of resilience and sense of community. Everyone working on the campaign was personally affected by Hurricane Katrina, which is reflected in its images and message of hope. “Our Home, Louisiana” remains one of the most recognized advertising campaigns Louisiana Blue has produced.
You can watch the 2005-2006 “Our Home, Louisiana” spots on the Louisiana Blue YouTube channel or by following the @MyLABlue social media channels.
“In spite of how bad Katrina was, it was wonderful to see Louisianians showing up for each other. Rebuilding isn’t about places, it’s about people. And the people are the reason our state is resilient, stayed united and has come back stronger,” Teamer said.
About Louisiana Blue
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, or Louisiana Blue, is committed to our mission to improve the health and lives of Louisianans. Founded in New Orleans in 1934, we are a tax-paying, not-for-profit health insurer with offices in every major region of Louisiana to serve our customers. We have been recognized for the past seven years as an honoree of The Civic 50, named by Points of Light as one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the United States. J.D. Power's 2025 U.S. Commercial Member Health Plan Satisfaction Study ranked us #1 in member satisfaction among commercial health plans in the East South Central Region. Louisiana Blue also was nationally recognized for exceptional customer service by USA Today's America's Best Customer Service 2025. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is an independent licensee of the
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. We invite all Louisianans to visit our website at
lablue.com or talk to us on
social media @MyLouisianaBlue.
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