This issue goes to press as allegations have begun to surface about euthanasia being practiced in some facilities in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This natural disaster, along with Wilma, which followed on its heels, has challenged the healthcare system of the Southern United States like nothing else since the time of the civil war. Many legal and ethical issues have been highlighted by the events which unfolded in healthcare facilities after these storms ravaged an entire region of this country. Elderly patients being left in a nursing home who apparently drowned, healthcare workers and rescuers being shot at as they tried to evacuate sick patients from stricken hospitals, bodies piled in stairwells, and mercy killings all present a number of scenarios that the astute nurse administrator should study. Why? To ensure ourselves that our facilities and our nurses are ready if such a disaster should strike. Although many in this country are deeply engaged in a game of finger pointing as to whose decisions led to this depth of disaster, I would suggest that the better course at this point would be to look at these tragic situations with only one purpose: to determine what each of us can do in our own facilities to make sure that we have a realistic plan in place for how such emergencies should be handled, and that our staff is trained and comfortable with making those plans work. Perhaps more importantly, they also need to be trained how to approach issues not addressed in the plans. Could anyone have anticipated some of the problems which appear to have occurred after Katrina? Sometimes we get so wrapped up in developing protocols and procedures that we forget that when things are really crazy, the most valuable skill we can have is to be able to think quickly and make reasonable decisions based on legal and ethical frameworks. I would encourage all of the nurse administrators and managers who had to live through this disaster to think about how you can share what you learned from it with your colleagues. JONA Law would like to publish your narrative account of what happened at your facility, the ethical issues that arose, and how you dealt with them. Submissions should be sent to [email protected].