ArchPundit

Learning from Ivan

ArchPundit September 4, 2005 No Comments

If Ivan had hit, one can only imagine how bad the impact would have been–

New Orleans CityBusiness (New Orleans, LA)
September 27, 2004 Monday
SECTION: NEWS
LENGTH: 843 words
HEADLINE: Terrible Traces: N.O. evacuation fails to account for thousands
BYLINE: Richard A. Webster

BODY:
The near miss of Hurricane Ivan highlighted the vulnerability of the homeless and low-income families in New Orleans.

Rusty Wirth, a case manager with the New Orleans Police Department’s Homeless Assistance Team, said the city failed to protect the homeless population during the crisis. Shelters closed prematurely and Mayor C. Ray Nagin’s administration was late in opening the Superdome as an emergency shelter, he said.

“People look at the homeless as just a bunch of drunks and addicts. But they’re people and I was one of them,” Wirth said. “I was homeless in ’97, so this is where my heart is. And when I see my people getting screwed, I get really upset.”

Tanzie Jones, Nagin spokeswoman, said the city did everything it could to protect the populace in calling for a voluntary evacuation and opening the Superdome to the public on Wednesday afternoon, less than 12 hours before Ivan arrived.

Nagin said 80 percent of the 1,200 people who sought shelter in the Superdome were homeless. Information on the cost of evacuating the homeless was not immediately available.

“They paid attention to our warnings so it looks like the plan worked,” Nagin said.
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Superdome Refuge of Last Resort Planning

ArchPundit September 4, 2005 No Comments

Amazing

Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
January 12, 2005 Wednesday
SECTION: METRO; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 460 words
HEADLINE: N.O. seeks emergency office head
BYLINE: By Mark Schleifstein, Staff writer

At the top of a long list of priorities for the new director will be working with federal and state officials to reshape storm evacuation planning in the aftermath of the massive evacuation delays that occurred during Hurricane Ivan last year.

“We?ve also got a major project under way trying to look at federal government support for creating a refuge of last resort to be used for Category 3 and above hurricanes, which we do not currently have,” Ebbert said.

“In the process of upgrading the Superdome and the Saints deal with the state, let?s look at designating that as the shelter, with upgrades: a backup power system, separate water and sewer system, improved electric generators that can continually run all the systems in the building, adequate medical and electronics systems, all of which would make the Superdome into a dual-purpose facility,” Ebbert said.

Establishing such a refuge is important because evacuating everyone is likely impossible, Ebbert said.

The Bus Plan

ArchPundit September 4, 2005 No Comments

Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
May 31, 2005 Tuesday
SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1479 words
HEADLINE: PREPARING FOR THE WORST;
Officials rework evacuation strategy

BYLINE: By Mark Schleifstein, Staff writer
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.

City officials also are cooperating with the American Red Cross, Total Community Action and the University of New Orleans in developing a faith-based hurricane response system that includes a buddy system for evacuation.

Operation Brother’s Keeper, financed with a grant from the Baptist Community Ministries, is aimed at assisting religious institutions in both preparing for a hurricane and in finding ways to pair with other religious institutions north of the lake to provide transportation and shelter.

There are four pilot churches this year, with a goal of providing assistance to about 2,000 residents.

Red Cross officials recommend that families put together emergency kits including personal financial information, flashlights, first-aid kits, medicines and other supplies, which can be used during evacuations or during other non-hurricane emergencies.

Wow…was this prescient

ArchPundit September 4, 2005 No Comments

Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
July 22, 2005 Friday
SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 665 words

HEADLINE: Hurricanes don’t scare most here, survey says;
Up to 60% would stay home for Category 3

BYLINE: By Mark Schleifstein, Staff writer

BODY:

As many as 60 percent of the residents of most southeast Louisiana parishes would remain in their homes if a Category 3 hurricane is approaching, according to a survey released Thursday by the University of New Orleans Survey Research Center and the Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Task Force.

That would be a dangerous decision, said task force president Jesse St. Amant, emergency preparedness director for Plaquemines Parish, because the state’s sinking coastline and levees no longer protect residents from a Category 3 storm, which can deliver winds of 130 mph and an 18-foot-high combination of storm surge and waves.

“The reality is that regardless of whether you lived through Betsy or remember Camille, though it hit somewhere else, if Ivan had happened here (last year), we would probably not be standing here talking about it in this (UNO) building,” St. Amant said. “We would still be recovering.”
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Evacuation Preparedness

ArchPundit September 4, 2005 No Comments

Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
July 24, 2005 Sunday
SECTION: METRO; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1070 words
HEADLINE: In storm, N.O. wants no one left behind;
Number of people without cars makes evacuation difficult
BYLINE: By Bruce Nolan, Staff writer
BODY:

City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give the poorest of New Orleans’ poor a historically blunt message: In the event of a major hurricane, you’re on your own.

In scripted appearances being recorded now, officials such as Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas drive home the word that the city does not have the resources to move out of harm’s way an estimated 134,000 people without transportation.

In the video, made by the anti-poverty agency Total Community Action, they urge those people to make arrangements now by finding their own ways to leave the city in the event of an evacuation.

“You’re responsible for your safety, and you should be responsible for the person next to you,” Wilkins said in an interview. “If you have some room to get that person out of town, the Red Cross will have a space for that person outside the area. We can help you.

“But we don’t have the transportation.”
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The Ignored

ArchPundit September 4, 2005 No Comments

From the NOLA Message Board–I’ve been reading Mike Bayham’s postings since at least Tuesday . They’ve been heartbreaking. He was notifying people about their loved ones including a nursing home where over 30 people were found dead, but over 40 were saved.

trying to get the word across the nation about “Saint Ignored” and our plight.. No precise hurricane casualty count has been made, but with corpses floating in fetid New Orleans flood waters, Louisiana state officials estimated the death toll in their state would be in the thousands. In Mississippi, the death toll was put unofficially at more than 180.

The disaster in New Orleans has overshadowed devastation in areas to the south and east in Louisiana.

Mike Bayham, a former councilman in St. Bernard Parish outside New Orleans, said the death toll in that area – largely cut off from media coverage – could exceed 1,000.

‘Bodies everywhere’ “It’s a catastrophe. We still have bodies floating everywhere,” said Bayham, who evacuated to Phoenix, Ariz.

According to Bayham, much of the parish of 72,000 people is covered by water, and entire towns – Delacroix, Shell Beach, Hopedale and Yscloski – are gone. “They’ve ceased to exist,” he said.

As floodwater grew increasingly toxic inside the city, the storm’s impact on the environment outside New Orleans was becoming more evident.

The Coast Guard reported that two huge oil tanks, each holding up to 80,000 gallons, had ruptured during the storm and were leaking into the Mississippi River.

In all, state and federal officials reported 153 incidents linked to the storm that were potentially harmful to the environment: toppled oil drilling platforms, diesel fuel leaking from wrecked ships, overturned rail cars full of toxic chemicals.

Environmental technicians could not reach the affected areas to assess the damage or start cleaning things up, said Jean Kelly, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of the Environment

Nagin Interview from Monday Evening

ArchPundit September 3, 2005 No Comments

This was his first big press contact after the hurricane and shows a very different attitude and a lot more hope.

Laugh, Cry, Laugh, and Cry in the end

ArchPundit September 3, 2005 8 Comments

I seldom watch Fox News given it always seems louder than other channels other than when Brit Hume is doing his Dick Cheney voice.

I decided to flip by and caught Geraldo and Shepard Smith having full fledged conniptions–and reasonably so, but you have to see it to believe it.

After Geraldo drew the map in Iraq, you might think he’d try it here…

From the Inbox

ArchPundit September 2, 2005 3 Comments

Oh Fuck Me

RESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
?
Contact:
Barry Coziahr
Church of Scientology
6901 Delmar Blvd.
University City, MO 63130
phone: 314-727-3747
?
Hurricane Katrina Assistance
?
The Church of Scientology is one of the disaster relief organizations?approved by the Office of Homeland Security.
The Volunteer Ministers of the?Church of Scientology of Missouri?are coordinating local?assistance efforts for victims of hurricane Katrina.?To find out how you can assist?call Barry Coziahr at: 314-727-3747 or go to www.volunteerministers.org.

Shipping Industry Update II

ArchPundit September 2, 2005 No Comments

Butler Miller of Miller Barge in St. Louis offers up an update:

The ship channel allowing ships in and out of the Port of New Orleans is due to open Saturday September 3 for ships with a 35′ draft or less,
covering a good chunk of the vessels. ?This is very good news. ?Other
drafts will be handled on a case by case basis. ?The ships are ‘bunched’
meaning that a large number of ships are coming in at the same time.
Whether there will be barges to receive the goods is an open question,
see below. ?Exacerbating things is that the grain elevators have not
been unloading the barges though, so equipment is even tighter.

My estimates of sunken equipment is looking suspect. ?As I said earlier,
good information is proving hard to come by and while fifty barges may
be missing, they may just be tossed up on a levy where they or may not
be able to have future economic life. ?It is still very early to tell
how many barges are affected.

As some of you may know, this year’s harvest is not nearly as good as
last year’s. ?The drought has lowered crop yields just about across the
board. ?Barges are moving about 3% less grain this year than last. ?Last
year, it was cheaper for Northern farmers to rail their goods to the
West coast, while this year, like just about any other year, barging
grain to New Orleans has economic advantages. ?

Someone asked if this equipment is insured. ?Of course, it is, but the
question is whether the ‘equipment parking lot’, a fleet, is liable for
the damages sustained or the equipment owners bear the risk because the
‘parking lot’ owners did all a person could be expected to do. ?The best
paid lawyers in the country will be fighting it out as to which
insurance company will be writing the check. ?

His First Update Is Here