The Broussard recovery planJefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard began laying out a recovery plan this morning for "the horrific tragedy" that Hurricane Katrina visited upon his jurisdiction.
It starts, he told WWL-AM radio, with "Operation Lockdown" using Louisiana State Police and military police to seal off Jefferson's borders until a target of Monday at 6 a.m. to reopen them.
"I will be looking to secure and lockdown this parish," he said.
"It is like a ghost town out there. That is the way we want it. If I can keep it a ghost town for the next five days, the looters will stand out and shine like a bright light."
Next, he said, is "Operation Snowplow," using National Guard bulldozers, cranes, trucks and other heavy equipment to clear the major east-west thoroughfares on both side of the Mississippi River. Concurrently, he will seek state help removing trees, traffic signals, signs and debris from north-south roads.
"We have to establish at least a functional grid," Broussard said.
Neighborhoods must wait.
"The residential streets are off my map right now," said Broussard, who gamely toured the parish Monday evening. "I almost didn't get back, and I have Expedition with a blue light on top. We could hardly find a route to get us back that wasn't flooded."
Broussard said he will seek a crackdown on looting, calling in more military police to work with sheriff's deputies and local police. Looters arrested in Jefferson Parish might have to be taken to jails elsewhere to ensure they are houses in sanitary and humane surroundings, he said.
Also important is raising water pressure, now so low in Broussard's view that toilets can't be flushed and firefighters can't douse flames.
"There was a business on the West Bank that burned to the ground yesterday," Broussard said.
Water pressure has plunged because Katrina uprooted old trees through Jefferson Parish, and in the process their roots ripped open buried water lines, Broussard said.
He said sewerage infrastructure seems to be in good shape but that wasterwater can't get to treatment plants because of lower water pressure in homes.
Other aspects of the recovery plan are:
-- Establishing traffic control once streets are clear, for many signals and signs have vanished.
-- Using parish government's website (www.jeffparish.net) to give evacuees information about their neighborhoods.
-- Bring all drainage pumping stations back online. Broussard said crews are working west to east on East Jefferson pumping stations -- from Kenner to New Orleans -- and in the opposition direction in West Jefferson.