The darkest moments can sometimes yield the brightest endeavors.

Dr. Michael Mascia ’68 is a medical director of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Quality Improvement at the Tulane University Hospital in New Orleans. Almost three years ago, this very hospital was a place of refuge as Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city.

Mascia spent five days watching as conditions plummeted from “the highest technology—we were doing robotic surgery—to primitive, in less than 48 hours,” he says. Finally, helicopters came and Mascia and his colleagues evacuated around 200 patients awaiting their own evacuation which would come the following morning.

Human resilience lasts longer than a storm, however, and Mascia has been working to establish a non-profit organization to improve disaster preparedness. He hopes that it will prompt citizens to take initiative during disasters rather than wait for governmental aid. Mascia has posted lessons from Katrina on his website www.ihealsolutions.com.

In the years since Katrina, Mascia has divided his time between New Orleans and Maine. “I go back and forth, work then recover,” he says. The effects of the storm still linger with him and with many.

Nonetheless, this Saint Anselm graduate survived then and continues to survive now. And with this gift of life, Mascia aims to make the most of it.