Where those residents would be transported is unclear. There is no plan in place to shelter evacuees in Lafayette Parish, but that doesn't mean that Lafayette intends to close its doors to future New Orleans evacuees.
New Orleans' plan calls for a total evacuation of the city within 36 hours of the governor and mayor announcing a mandatory evacuation. In a flowchart provided to the media, the city broadly outlined its "city assisted evacuation plan." One area of the diagram shows the New Orleans Convention Center as a processing center for evacuees and another area of the chart indicates that state and regional shelters "will be opened in anticipation of receiving evacuees."
But Mayor Nagin and New Orleans officials apparently hadn't contacted state and regional representatives before they announced their plans. Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden was upset with being left out of the loop and told The Advocate that Baton Rouge would not take in New Orleans evacuees. "The people in Baton Rouge need to be happy as well, and we can peacefully co-exist but not with somebody dictating to us what they want us to do," said Holden. The Advocate later amended its initial report, stating that Holden was talking about the River Center, not the other 51 designated shelters in the city.
Part of Nagin's plan calls for some elderly or infirm New Orleans residents to be evacuated by Amtrak trains. "We are talking to three different agencies ' the city, the state and the federal government ' about how we can be of assistance," says Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman based in Chicago. "But if you're looking for specifics as to how many trains, going which way, carrying how many people, there's no such specificity."
Dr. Jimmy Guidry, state health officer with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, says his department has been in contact with the city of New Orleans. He notes that individual hospitals and nursing homes are required to have their own plans for evacuations, but if those plans fall through, the state can step in. "Since the hospitals are pretty much at capacity because we've lost so many in Katrina and Rita, our plan would be to activate the National Disaster Medical System to help fly patients out of state," says Guidry.
Mark Smith, spokesman for the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, says each city and parish is responsible for evacuating its residents, but if the need arises the state can provide assistance. "What is involved in [New Orleans'] processing plan is beyond me," he says. "I have no idea. That's something you would need to contact Ray-Ray about." Although the state would be involved with designating shelters by way of a task force, Smith says those final decisions rest with the Red Cross. "Typically," he says, "in the event of a disaster that requires sheltering, the Red Cross does the sheltering, so we work very closely with the Red Cross, but we don't interfere with their procedures." He says his department has been in contact with city and parish officials throughout the state about New Orleans' plans.
Bill Vincent, director of the Lafayette Parish Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, was unavailable for comment before press time. But Mike Mouton, Lafayette Consolidated Government's emergency operations and security coordinator, says Vincent is the man the state would contact in the event of a hurricane. Part of his job is planning evacuations out of Lafayette. Mouton's job is to activate that plan, but he has yet to hear from the state or New Orleans on where residents would be sheltered.
Cajundome Director Greg Davis only learned of New Orleans' plans through media reports the day after Nagin held the press conference. In one newspaper account, Davis read that the state would be responsible for determining where evacuees went from New Orleans. "When I read that I was wondering how facilities such as the Cajundome would be impacted," he says. "I'm expecting to get that word, and if I don't receive a phone call shortly, I certainly will be pursuing that information. I'm not going to go into the hurricane season not knowing that." As of press time, Davis had no further details about New Orleans' or the state's intentions.
Following hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Cajundome sheltered 18,500 hurricane evacuees. At its maximum capacity, 7,000 residents lived in both the Cajundome and the adjoining convention center. The Cajundome operated as a shelter for two months, and it took another two months to repair and renovate the facilities, at a cost of $6 million. Davis says FEMA has agreed to pay most of the cost ' except $1.2 million, which the Cajundome is appealing.
Due to the scale of Katrina and the amount of displaced New Orleanians, Davis notes it was the first time that stadiums and arenas became shelters for extended periods of time in a role normally reserved for churches and community centers. The new shelters gave way to a new term ' mega-shelters.
Within 24 hours of the Red Cross taking over the Cajundome as a shelter in the wake of Katrina, Davis contacted City-Parish President Joey Durel and informed him that if evacuees were going to be properly cared for, he needed to take control of the facility. "The Red Cross did not have the ability to handle that," Davis says. "They were in over their heads [last year], so we took it back and managed the facility ourselves in partnership with the Red Cross."
As a member of the International Association of Assembly Managers, Davis was subsequently asked by the organization to chair a national task force to draft best practice guidelines for mega-shelters. IAAM's executive board is considering a 100-page draft titled "Mega-Shelter Best Practices for Planning and Activation" this week. If accepted, the organization will seek the endorsement of the Department of Homeland Security and the Red Cross. Another document is in the works for the operation of mega-shelters.
"I have the confidence that our state, parish and city emergency preparedness officials are aggressively working on that," says Davis. "And if I don't get the phone call, then I have the responsibility, as the director of the Cajundome, to get off of my butt and to seek them out, ask the right questions, get the right answers and then prepare this building to be a shelter, if that's what I'm required to do. I'm not going to shy away from the responsibility from doing that simply because no one picks up the phone and calls me. I'm totally confident that I'm going to get the answer, either through their initiative or my own."
MAY 23 Here's a story in the Picayune about some statistics that must come as a blow to folks who believe that any private school can do a better job of educating kids than any public school: Danielle Dreilinger reports that only 30 percent of the voucher kids are passing. That's less than half of the state wide average, she says. It's an interesting statistic because most of the schools (if not all) taking voucher kids have never had their students' standardized test scores released to the public before.
MAY 23 Stephen Sabludowsky blogs on Bayou Buzz about auditor requests here. Recently the state GOP started crowing about a request from the Legislative Auditor, claiming they were being targeted because of their anti-tax stance. (Uh, your what?) Denial and hyperbole aside, the state Democratic party blew holes in that theory with an email announcing they'd received the same request, Sabludowsky writes here.
MAY 23 Jim Brown blogs about the senate race in this post. He says that, given Bobby Jindal's "lack of traction" on the national stage, it might make more sense for the governor to consider running against Mary Landrieu for the senate seat. Since Tim Teeple left the Cassidy team, it makes sense he might land on a Jindal for Senate team, Brown opines.
MAY 23 In this Louisiana Voice post, blogger Tom Aswell writes of rumors that his nemesis, state Superintendent of Education John White, may be soon departing Louisiana for a federal post. It's hard to believe, given his performance, Aswell says, but stranger things have happened. An anti-White BESE member says that, if true, White is quitting before he can be fired.
MAY 23 In this post on American Zombie, blogger Jason Berry writes about the Mother's Day shooting. Mayor Landrieu said that "this is not who we are," but the fact is, this is New Orleans, Berry writes. The violence infused in the city is the result of a culture created by "sins of omission or sins of commission," Berry writes. It's not a problem that can be solved by legislating, policing, praying or publicizing, he says: Someone's got to understand what's happening first.
MAY 23 This post in the Westside Journal tells us what Port Allen Mayor Deedy has been up to lately: vetoing ordinances, apparently. This story is most interesting, however, when it delves into a petition that has been circulating around the city lately. It accuses the former mayor of a lot of nasty things; the former mayor says it is full of lies and "broken syntax" which may be a larger offense in his eyes.
MAY 23 This editorial posted in The Advocate is a bit confusing. The writing is poor - definitely not up to the usual editorial writing standard there - and the point is hard to grasp. Apparently, the writer is saying that privatization of state efforts is OK, as long as there is oversight and transparency, but Jindal's not good at that, and the legislature shouldn't over-react. Okey Dokey. Can't they get one of them Pulitzer-winning people to write an editorial?
MAY 23 This post on The Lens gives you links to a new Google Earth tool that allows you to see any spot on earth transform over the past 30 years. Bob Marshall, who covers the coast for the paper, says that in the case of Louisiana's coastline, it's possibly something you don't want to see, because it's not a pretty picture. There are several clips here, showing critical areas erode away. For Marshall, it was vindication for all those times he was met with eye-rolling when he talked about erosion.
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