Years of Research Ruined in Katrina Flood (including BIOWEAPONS labs)

[Windy]

Sep 13, 9:41 PM EDT [2005]

Years of Research Ruined in Katrina Flood 

By PAUL ELIAS and ALICIA CHANG 
Associated Press Writers 

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As rising floodwaters swamped New Orleans, Louisiana's chief
epidemiologist enlisted state police on a mission to break
into a high-security government lab and destroy any dangerous
germs before they could escape or fall into the wrong hands.

Armed with bolt cutters and bleach, Dr. Raoult Ratard's team
entered the state's so-called "hot lab," and killed
all the living samples.

"This is what had to be done," said Ratard, who
matter-of-factly put a sudden end to his lab's work on
dangerous germs, which he wouldn't name.

At least Ratard's team was able to retrieve laptop computers
containing vital scientific data. Many other scientists in the
region weren't so fortunate, losing years of research, either
through storm damage or voluntary destruction.

Not since the torrential floods from Tropical Storm Allison,
which badly damaged the Texas Medical Center in 2001, has
scientific research been disrupted on such a large scale.
Doctors and researchers in the Crescent City became exiles
overnight, indefinitely locked out of their labs and unable to
see patients.

Thousands of laboratory animals - many genetically engineered
with human diseases like cancer and painstakingly bred and
cared for - perished along with vital tissue samples thawed in
abandoned labs.

<snip>

One thin silver lining to all the lab damage: It appears that
no deadly diseases were released from the area's "hot
labs," where researchers routinely handle and store some
of the world's most dangerous germs.

In Covington, just north of New Orleans, Tulane's
high-security National Primate Research Center reported only
minor damage and said none of its 5,000 research animals
escaped.

Ratard, the state epidemiologist, said the lab he returned to
appeared undamaged and untouched by looters. He wouldn't
disclose what germs the laboratory was working on when Katrina
struck.

All the labs in Katrina's path that handle bioweapons defense
research involving pathogens such as anthrax reported to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that their security
wasn't compromised, according to CDC spokesman Von Roebuck.
"A few reported minor damage, but there was no issue of
escape."

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