SBD
Admiral
Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 1022
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 Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 4:39 am Post subject: They knew how to evacuate back in 1998!! |
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| Quote: | Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA) September 2, 1998 Wednesday, ORLEANS
September 2, 1998 Wednesday, ORLEANS
HEADLINE: LOUISIANA ISN'T TAKING ANY CHANCES WITH EARL: SCHOOLS CLOSE;SHELTERS OPEN
By Mark Schleifstein Staff writer
South Louisiana braced for the worst Tuesday but hoped to get off easy as Tropical Storm Earl verged on hurricane strength and threatened to plow ashore, perhaps as early as this afternoon.
Forecasters sharply revised the storm's expected landfall after Earl's eye disintegrated around midday Tuesday more than 500 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico and then re-formed near Louisiana's coast.
With maximum sustained winds of 60 mph Tuesday evening, Earl was not yet a hurricane. But forecasters predicted it would become one overnight, if it sustained winds of more than 74 mph. It was predicted to reach land between Cameron and Pascagoula, Miss., where hurricane warnings were posted, and possibly dump up to 10 inches of rain.
Gov. Foster declared a state of emergency Tuesday afternoon, saying the state expected torrential storms that would cause flooding along with danger to residents and property. The Mississippi River was closed to shipping and thousands of oil and gas workers were evacuated from platforms in the Gulf as companies ceased production on hundreds of offshore stations. Virtually all the 33,000 water-bound employees in the Gulf were expected to be shuttled to land by boat or helicopter by midday today.
After Earl's center re-formed Tuesday and began moving faster toward the coast, officials quickly regrouped.
"Our planning window went from 60 hours to 24 hours just with the flip of a pencil," said Dick Gremillon, director of emergency preparedness in Calcasieu Parish.
At 10 p.m., the storm's broad eye was about 190 miles south-southwest of New Orleans and was moving to the north-northeast at 12 mph, roughly doubling its speed across the water at midday. Landfall was expected near Morgan City.
But with the storm still developing and being steered by weak currents, the track could change quickly, forecasters warned.
"There's a great deal of uncertainty," said Charles Roeseler, a
meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Houston and Galveston.
"People need to be prepared as much as possible."
Several parishes declared a state of emergency to help in evacuation and
other planning decisions, said Debbie Conrad, public information officer for
the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness. Those parishes included
Jefferson, St. Tammany, Plaquemines, Terrebonne, Assumption, Ascension, Iberia, Jefferson Davis and Cameron.
Conrad said residents thinking of evacuating toward Baton Rouge on
Interstate 10 should take U.S. 61 between Louisiana 30 and Louisiana 73 to avoid construction that limits the interstate to one lane in each direction.
Interstate 12 also has construction that has limited traffic to one lane
between the Natalbany River and Interstate 55, and residents are asked to use U.S. 190 to get around that area.
Conrad said a team of Federal Emergency Management Agency officials was expected to arrive in the state this morning. FEMA helps coordinate emergency operations in the aftermath of hurricanes, including offering financial aid to those whose property has been damaged.
Residents weren't waiting to see where the storm would hit. In East
Jefferson, residents scurried home from work to stock up on batteries,
candles, bottled water and nonperishable food, clogging an already packed
Veterans Memorial Boulevard.
"I think most people are aware of the problem of not being properly
prepared," grocer Roy Zuppardo said as customers swarmed through his
supermarket on Veterans, loading up on bottled water and potted meats.
Schools were ordered closed today in Plaquemines, St. Bernard, Terrebonne,Assumption and Ascension parishes. Other parishes were to decide overnight and parents were advised to check television or radio reports before sending their children to school.
In New Orleans, Mayor Marc Morial reserved his decision on 009 ? 0007.08 the appropriate response to the storm until well into the evening. "One of our greatest adversaries is citizen panic, inaccurate information, inconsistent information," Morial said.
The Orleans Levee Board closed two low-lying bridges: the Gentilly
Boulevard crossing over the London Avenue Canal and the Robert E. Lee
Boulevard bridge over the Orleans Avenue Canal. Sewerage & Water Board officials said all pumps had been tested and were working properly.
"This is a serious issue," said Harold Gorman, the water board's executive director. "The forecast is for 5 to 10 inches of rain, and so it's going to be a long, hard storm."
St. Bernard Parish President Charlie Ponstein declared an official state of emergency at Tuesday's regular council meeting, allowing the parish to force evacuations and free up money for disaster relief.
Officials from the Lake Borgne Basin Levee District in St. Bernard said
floodgates were closed at the Violet Canal and Bayou Bienvenue. "No boats can come in or go out," said Dan Caluda, manager of the levee board in St. Bernard.
White PVC poles were placed along the highways of eastern St. Bernard to mark the edges of the roadways to prevent motorists from driving off flooded roads and into bayous.
In Plaquemines Parish, a voluntary evacuation went into effect at noon
Tuesday. Officials said the parish was on full alert by noon Tuesday, with
school buses deployed to pick up elderly residents and anyone without
transportation and bring them to Belle Chasse High School, which was declared a shelter.
"We usually pick up about 2,000 people in situations like these. We've also moved all the emergency vehicles north, out of the low areas. When we say go, that's it," Plaquemines Parish President Clyde Giordano said.
In Venice, a steady stream of people, pulling cars and boats, began
evacuating Tuesday morning, officials from local marinas said. "We're seeing a lot of rain and a lot of people here securing their boats. The evacuation has started," said Mary Castille of Cypress Cove Marina on Coast Guard Road.
"There are some that are saying they are going to ride it out, though. They say 'As long as the wind doesn't get to 150 mph, we'll be OK."'
At Venice Marina on Sports Marina Road, Harbor Master Brent Ballay said lessons were learned during last year's Hurricane Danny, and locals were taking the voluntary evacuation seriously. "The way the storm is acting right now is a lot like Danny, which snapped into a hurricane overnight and caught us by surprise," Ballay said.
About 300 Entergy . repair workers from Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas
began moving toward south Louisiana early this morning to help fix storm
damage expected to the power utility's transmission and distribution network, Entergy spokesman Keith Bromery said.
Reporters Sandy Barbier, Keith Darce, Petula Dvorak, Pam Louwagie, Brian Thevenot and Anand Vaishnav and the Associated Press contributed to this story. |
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