Posted on 09/13/2005 4:12:42 PM PDT by LA Woman3
Posted on Sun, Aug. 28, 2005
New Orleans flees, braces, prays as monstrous Hurricane Katrina bears down
ALLEN G. BREED
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS - "We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared," Mayor Ray Nagin said in ordering the mandatory evacuation for his city of 485,000 people, surrounded by suburbs of a million more. "The storm surge will most likely topple our levee system." Conceding that as many as 100,000 inner-city residents didn't have the means to leave and an untold number of tourists were stranded by the closing of the airport, the city arranged buses to take people to 10 last-resort shelters, including the Superdome. Nagin also dispatched police and firefighters to rouse people out with sirens and bullhorns, and even gave them the authority to commandeer vehicles to aid in the evacuation. "This is very serious, of the highest nature," the mayor said. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime event." Hotels were spared from evacuation orders to give tourists and locals a place for "vertical evacuation."
Vertical evacuation high on risk -
Hotels urged not to take in guests during hurricanes
Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)
May 24, 2005
Author: Rebecca Mowbray
Business writer
Estimated printed pages: 5
In a hurricane symposium for hotel operators Monday afternoon at the Ritz Carlton New Orleans hotel, a battalion of public safety officials urged local hoteliers not to take guests during hurricanes because they won't be able to take care of them when the big storm hits.
"I don't encourage vertical evacuation," said Joseph Matthews, chief of the Office of Emergency Preparedness. "In New Orleans, let's face it, there are no safe havens."
But the reality is that for many years New Orleanians have evacuated vertically -- to local high-rise hotels -- rather than face the stress, uncertainty and hassle of trying to get out of town when hurricanes approach. The city does not open shelters; it opens refuges of last resort where people are responsible for their own food.
With the inventory of hotel rooms in the New Orleans area having grown to 38,000, there's greater capacity than ever before for people to try to stay.
Last year during Hurricane Ivan, for example, local hotels ran at 90 percent occupancy, often with three or four people to a room.
"One thing we know for a fact is that you're going to be full for a hurricane whether you want to be or not," said Bill Langkopp, executive vice president of the Greater New Orleans Hotel and Lodging Association. "Vertical evacuation may not be policy, but it's reality."
This debate between safety and reality played out Monday afternoon as more than 100 hotel engineers, and safety and operations specialists gathered to talk about what they learned from the near miss of Hurricane Ivan last fall and how they can make things safer next time.
"We weren't prepared for the hurricane that hit," said Kitty Ratcliffe, who joined the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau as executive vice president after weathering last season's four hurricanes in Florida as head of the Jacksonville Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We want to make sure that we deal with this the right way should it occur again in 2005."
The convention bureau has developed a crisis management plan that it plans to give to all convention groups that meet in the city between July and October, and it is encouraging hotels to streamline their communications with each other when storms threaten so they can work together to make everyone safe.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that this year there will be 12 to 15 tropical storms, seven to nine hurricanes and three to five hurricanes that are at least a Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, or storms with winds of 111 mph to 130 mph.
"All the indications are there. It's going to be a very active season," said David Bernard, a WWL-TV meteorologist and speaker at the event. Bernard spoke about how to read hurricane strike predictions and noted that though scientists have gotten better at tracking storms, they still can't predict how strong storms will be when they make landfall.
But public safety officials said they hope there won't be many people that stay in hotels next time, and they painted a dire picture of why they shouldn't.
Local hotels may be strong enough to withstand hurricanes, even though many were built before building codes required them to endure 130 mph winds. But hotel windows, and the frames that hold the windows, may not be able to withstand a hurricane. And upper floors of hotels face stronger winds than lower floors, making high-rises potentially dangerous places to be.
Moreover, if the big one does hit, public safety officials said, hotels might find themselves taking care of guests for a few months rather than a few days, which would require having appropriate amounts of food, water and diesel fuel for generators on hand.
Fire danger also increases during storms because people often try to use candles instead of flashlights. If the city floods, firefighters expect the city to be filled with hazardous waste, some of which could be flammable. Worse, because even the newest firetrucks can make it through only up to 31 inches of water and it's a losing battle to fight fires in winds above 40 mph, the New Orleans Fire Department won't be there to help if there's a problem, Superintendent Charles Parent said.
Public safety officials also rattled off a number of other things for hotel operators to consider. Do they have some sort of safety restraint in case police can't get there to arrest someone? Should they ban sales of alcohol during storms? Can they keep people inside so they won't get hit with flying debris?
"If you're going to house people in a vertical evacuation, you're taking on a tremendous responsibility. You may be housing them for months," said Gary Savelle, chief of the New Orleans Fire Department.
However, after reports that it took 10 hours to make the 80-mile trip to Baton Rouge during the peak of the Hurricane Ivan evacuation last year, it's easy to understand why people decide to stay in a hotel rather than hit the road.
But Matthews said public safety officials hope this year's improved contra-flow evacuation plan will make the decision to leave easier. To set the tone that evacuation is the only way to go, Matthews said the city plans to close schools and government earlier this year.
"We would like you to make it known that you will not take additional guests," said Matthews, who encouraged hoteliers to submit evacuation plans to his office. He also encouraged them to sign contracts with diesel fuel suppliers and bus companies for emergency services if they plan to stay open, or, better yet, try to partner with hotels north of Interstate 12 and get them to agree to take guests if a storm hits.
The hotel association said it can't tell its members to shut down and that if there are guests stranded in hotels, they have a duty to stay open. "I think our role would be to provide all of the information that we heard today so that management can make informed decisions when the time comes," Langkopp said.
But at least one hotel operator said he plans to discourage taking reservations during hurricanes.
Scott Dawson, general manager of the Hotel Inter-Continental, said hoteliers have long felt that it is a community service -- a duty, even -- to provide shelter during the storms. But after participating in Monday's hurricane discussion and one last week in Jefferson Parish, Dawson said he thinks it's not doing anyone any favors to attempt to take on that responsibility.
Whether or not to stay open is not a question of business, because hotels lose money by selling rooms during storms at moderate rates and trying to serve so many people around the clock, Dawson said. It's a question of responsibility to employees and guests.
Next hurricane, Dawson said he thinks he will try to encourage guests and employees to leave, discourage reservations from the community and only take them if people are really stuck as the storm is bearing down on the area.
"You listen to these guys and you start to wonder if this is a wise course of action" to take guests, Dawson said. "It's about what is responsible. I think it's responsible to have as few people remain in the city as possible. Fundamentally, you want to have the hotel empty, because that means that everyone is somewhere else."
http://www.nola.com
bttt
Why couldn't the contents of the DVD have been played over the air on the broadcast stations in New Orleans in the days before Katrina hit.
Wow-brilliant idea! Do you want to be the new mayor of New Orleans!? : )
Oh, and you don't have to relocate....
RTA buses would be used for evacuation -
But plan still falls far short of needs
Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)
July 8, 2005
Author: Bruce Nolan
Staff writer
Estimated printed pages: 2
New Orleans has plans to deploy scores of buses from the Regional Transit Authority to evacuate people without transportation if Hurricane Dennis threatens the city, City Hall said on Thursday.
Such an effort would be both unprecedented and, apparently, far short of the city's needs.
At the same time, it appears emergency planners' efforts to establish church-led private transportation networks have fallen flat.
Surveys of the city's largest churches and of the Archdiocese of New Orleans indicated Thursday that most have no plans to gather church members or others and move them out of town in church vans or buses.
But the Archdiocese of New Orleans said it would evacuate the residents of its nursing homes and other health facilities.
Emergency planners may announce today whether they will trigger the RTA evacuation. That will depend on the course and location of Dennis, said Tami Frazier, spokeswoman for Mayor Ray Nagin.
The city assumes residents will look first to family and friends for rides out of the city, she said.
If events warrant evacuation, the Regional Transit Authority will contribute part of its 364-bus fleet to an effort that will end at undisclosed shelters north of Lake Pontchartrain, RTA spokeswoman Rosalind Cook said.
Not all the buses will be available, she cautioned. "We might be talking about as many as 100," she said.
The agency would hold much of its fleet back to continue operating on city streets until forced to shut down by a city curfew. The number of evacuation buses is further limited by the number of volunteer drivers who sign up to drive them away, she said.
Even if the entire fleet was used, the buses would carry only about 22,000 people out of the city -- far short of the 134,000 people estimated to be without cars in a recent University of New Orleans study.
In past years planners have talked about recruiting churches and their small private fleets into an evacuation effort. The idea, called Operation Brother's Keeper, has largely withered in the face of the complexity of the details, said Kay Wilkins, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross.
The state Legislature last year killed a bill to give immunity from liability to any person or organization providing free transportation during an emergency, except in cases of gross negligence. Critics of the bill said volunteers could be covered by insurance and questioned whether the proposal would be constitutional.
The Rev. William Maestri, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, said some church parishes may be mounting local evacuation efforts, but those would be announced through parish communication outlets.
http://www.nola.com
Louisiana politicos always sit on their hands and put off fixing things. The money is never used for what they tell the voters it will be used for. They are never held accountable and I am doubting they will be in this case either. ARRRGGHHH!
"but considering that plasma"
But couldn't the looters have quenched their thirst by converting the pulsating flow of the gas into a liquid through a capillary at critical pressure?
It may have been planned for churches and other community groups to show this DVD.
Busing planned
The busing evacuation plan is a work in progress. Details likely will remain murky until time to implement the plan, because officials don't want people heading to a particular place expecting a ride. Those without transportation need to be planning now how they'll get to safety, New Orleans Emergency Preparedness Director Joseph Matthews said.
"It's important to emphasize that we just don't have the resources to take everybody out," Matthews said.
He said the viability of the bus plan depends on whether Regional Transit Authority and New Orleans public school officials find enough volunteer drivers.
New Orleans is in an unusual situation, compared with neighboring parishes, because more than a quarter of its residents have no personal transportation. According to the most recent census data, about 134,000 out of the city's 480,000 people are without cars, said Shirley Laska, director of the University of New Orleans' Center for Hazards Assessment, Response & Technology.
If the buses are used, Matthews said those on board will have to be patient.
"Lets face it," he said. "In time of an emergency, if we wait until the new contraflow plan is put in effect to begin this plan, it will take anywhere from four to six hours to get people as far as Baton Rouge.
"And we have to arrange for things as simple as finding strategic points along the route for bathrooms and water, for security and medical personnel to accompany the convoy in case of medical needs."
Matthews said the plan is to take people from 10 pickup points throughout the city to one or more shelters north of Interstate 12.
It doesn't matter. No one will listen but us. Bush gave them their sound bite to make it look like it's : ALL BUSH'S FAULT.
Way to go! Then Mayor Naglagence and Moron Blanco started griping about time it takes to find bodies.
This sucks. This president is such a wimp when it comes to the media and the Dem-wits.
It doesn't matter. No one will listen but us. Bush gave them their sound bite to make it look like it's : ALL BUSH'S FAULT.
Way to go! Then Mayor Naglagence and Moron Blanco started griping about time it takes to find bodies.
This sucks. This president is such a wimp when it comes to the media and the Dem-wits.
Zing!
Hilarious!
Thanks for the ping!
Hi Ellesu. Do you happen to have any details on Metairie? A couple of our long time Freepers live(d) there and no one has heard anything from 'em. Best I can tell, it's mostly under water???
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05256/570476.stm
I'll see if I can find out more info.
Don't spend a lot of time searching news items. I think I've already pretty much searched most of them. I was just hoping you might have some first hand info about Metairie and just how widespread the flooding was.
Thanks
FGS
BTW and FYI, there are quite a few Freepers living in and around the Big Easy. Most I'm aware of seemed to have leffout before the storm hit. These two in particular are both very active ladies in local politics; precinct chairmen and the like. If you had ever driven past one their homes you'd probably remember it. She usually has about 20 - 30 American flags in and around the property. BIG house.
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