SBD
Admiral
Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 1022
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 Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:03 pm Post subject: TALK BACK-Readers reflect on Hurricane Georges-1998 |
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Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA)
October 4, 1998 Sunday, ORLEANS
SECTION: METRO; Pg. B7
LENGTH: 2703 words
HEADLINE: TALK BACK
After our brush with Hurricane Georges, readers reflected on personal and public preparations for the storm. While many praised official efforts to evacuate the area, they offered a lot of constructive criticism, too. They suggested ways to ease evacuation gridlock and improve communications. Despite long drives in bumper-to-bumper traffic, however, most of those who evacuated said that they wouldn't hesitate to leave again under a similar threat.
I'd like to request that the news broadcasters inform us of the wind speeds, the gusts that are actually occurring so that we could relate these to direct experience. If you say, 'Well we had a 40-mph wind,' we know what a 40-mph wind feels like and whether we want to mess with one.
Carole Lachney
New Orleans
Just in my neighborhood alone there were six people who have been burglarized completely. I've lost over $10,000 worth of merchandise out of my home...looting and house robberies really were prevalent...I don't think our law enforcement officers were really on top of it. If they want to have a curfew and ask people to leave their homes, they just should do something to protect their homes...It's really depressing to come back home and find that the hurricane didn't wipe you out but robbers did wipe you out.
Burt St. Pelcovich
Terrytown
We opted to not evacuate, even though St. Charles Parish was the first parish to order mandatory evacuation. Our reasoning behind it, primarily, was financial. We had no place to go and could not afford to put the family up at a motel for two or three days or however long it was going to be... We live in a two-story, steel-frame house and felt pretty safe here... There are a lot of people who are not in the financial position - elderly and unemployed - that cannot just pack up and leave town. You know, people who have large families, they just can't afford to go stay in a hotel. So the parish needs to make some type of provisions for people like that. Perhaps vouchers for hotels, you know, FEMA vouchers or something like that, because we just had no place to go.
Terri Tartaglia
Luling
I think the main lesson learned was that the State Police have to be more heads up in road construction. They should have opened both lanes of Interstate 10 eastbound and reversed it to westbound traffic early Saturday morning. We've had many emergency management meetings, nobody caught this. They also screwed it up on the way back of all things, after they learned their mistake. Also when you take tolls off the Causeway, you have to at least reset the first light in Mandeville or the traffic backs up onto the bridge.
Debbie Settoon
Kenner
I was an absolute fool by not evacuating. After I watched what happened and what could have happened out in the lake, I should have taken more precautions and evacuated.
Pamela Nevie
Chalmette
In the future during an alert, it would be beneficial to the public to have a designated public service TV channel which would provide current information on all evacuation routes. The State Police should have the responsibility to provide ongoing status and information of all evacuation routes. This would eliminate calls to the State Police and provide reliable information to the public.
William L. Decell
Algiers
I would ask that someone come up with a comprehensive plan to restore electrical service as soon as possible. The Superdome and Convention Center could have been used as a safe storage facility for several thousand electrical boom trucks. Instead, they were out of town and weren't here and ready to go. Six thousand workers were brought in for this dress rehearsal. If it were a direct hit, I would estimate, we would have needed at least three times this amount. Only divine intervention stopped the entire metro area from being powerless for up to a month. Entergy wasn't prepared and dropped the ball in a big way.
Alex Fisher
Terrytown
I have two handicapped parents and I didn't know where to bring them to a shelter. I had no idea what shelter handled handicapped. When finally I found out where to go, it was too late to move them out, the winds were too strong.
Sandy Gremillion
Harvey
There is no doubt in my mind that I would leave the New Orleans area again. My family that consisted of a four-car caravan would definitely leave again but would heed the warning and prepare a definite route... There are no regrets, no doubts that we would leave again. Just second thoughts on better preparedness, leaving sooner and less panic. To emergency management, bravo, we got the message.
L. Gaspard
Gentilly
One lesson our politicians have never learned is that something must be done about the fact that the Highway Department is always conducting major construction that constricts Interstate 10 between New Orleans and Baton Rouge during hurricane season. This evacuation route absolutely has to be completely open several days before voluntary and mandatory evacuations are ordered from Jeff Parish and New Orleans.
Robert Jacobsen
Metairie
I would suggest that the road work or highway work that's planned for construction purposes be scheduled so as not to interfere with evacuation routes. Certainly no two highways which could both be used should be messed up at the same time.
Lynne Schackai
New Orleans
I learned three important factors. No. 1, cordless phones do not work during a hurricane when you lose your power. No. 2, five bags of ice is not enough for four days without electric. And No. 3, have some wooden matches. Trying to light your candles and Kerosene lamps with these little paper match folders is really tough.
Laura Murphy
New Orleans
When the lights went out, why didn't we have National Guards to patrol the streets? Many families left in our area, and four of our neighbors were robbed in that darkness Sunday night. I'd just like to know, why don't they have some sort of backup to patrol the neighborhood when the lights and the alarms are off?
Edwina Rillieux
New Orleans
I'd like to know what it takes to cancel college football games in Louisiana. On Saturday we had to fight traffic plus 60,000 plus fans going to the LSU game and people going in the opposite direction were going to the Tulane game. That was ridiculous, that should have been canceled. Five minutes after the game started, they closed the interstate... Where were the Baton Rouge and the State Police to guide the people through Highway 61 going through Baton Rouge with all the red lights? In LaPlace, there were police coming back that were manning the lights; we didn't have to stop at any lights. Coming through Opelousas, there were people there manning the lights - we went to Natchitoches - when we got to Baton Rouge, there was no one there. We had to stop at every light on Airline Highway.
Fay Rice
Kenner
I believe that most of us will agree that underground or buried facilities are inherently more effective in providing continuity of service than aerial facilities when natural disasters strike. The latest storms and hurricanes prove this... The city and Entergy should initiate and implement plans without delay to place current and future power facilities in such a protected environment.
J.R. Matherne
New Orleans
One of the things that I think would be very helpful for everyone who evacuated would be to run the New Orleans news stations and news broadcast on a public television station. Because once you get out of town, you can't follow up with what's happening in town other than with the Weather Channel, which is pretty useless. It seems to me like we could take advantage of our public television network.
Jennifer Heath
Metairie
Construction on Interstate 10 and Interstate 12 along the Gulf Coast should never force traffic to narrow to one lane. These are primary evacuation routes and temporary detours during construction should always be required to have two lanes. Also any north-south interstates such as I-55 and I-59 should hever be narrowed to one lane south of I-12 since these are primary hurricane evacuation routes.
Gerald Freyder
Kenner
We opted to stay Uptown in our house, and we thought we prepared very well: plenty of ice, plenty of batteries. What we didn't prepare for was having the electricity go out hours before a storm even came. So, I think everyone should need to know they need to double their ice, double everything because of power shortages before a storm or else buy a generator.
Kitty Odwyer
New Orleans
I was a little bit disappointed because having such a large community of Spanish-speaking and Vietnamese people here, none of the major TV stations or radio stations had anybody just as a public service giving the announcements in either of these languages, Spanish or Vietnamese... A lot of these people are elderly and bedridden and they don't understand English. So, just as a public service, it would have been very nice to listen to something in Spanish or in Vietnamese.
Maria Guitart
Metairie
Some things we learned from the experience are, first of all, to buy plywood ahead of time, when there is less than a two-hour wait and it's cheaper than $11 a piece. To definitely avoid I-10: We took Airline-Highway to Baton Rouge and it only took an hour and 15 minutes to get there... Make sure that you have rabbit ears for your TV when you return, because even if your electricity is on, Cox Cable might not work for a couple of days either. And, last of all, make sure someone from your family stays at home and braves the storm because that's the only way you'll get valid weather reports, is if you can call home and get the reports from the local weathermen.
A. Rini
New Orleans
I think there ought to be official evacuation shelters where people are allowed to bring their pets with them. If you realize that 50 percent of all households have at least one pet, I really think there needs to be a designated shelter where the evacuees can bring their pets with them... It would be one less worry for the people who are fleeing the city or their homes because of the storm threat.
Barbara Benedette
Metairie
The State Police phone number does not have appropriate signage. I believe I only saw one sign traveling from Kenner to Texas, and I think we need to see more of these signs because if there were breakdowns or emergencies, I certainly couldn't dial them up on my cell phone.
Lyn Burger
Kenner
I'd like to commend Entergy. Although I did not have power outage, I think it's sick the way that people are complaining about how long they were without lights. If it had hit like it was supposed to, they'd probably be dead right now. And I would tell Mayor Morial not to open the Superdome again if it ever needed to be for those people in New Orleans. All they did was complain about their cornflakes and hot dogs and...steal stuff out the Superdome, so Mayor Morial, do not do them the favor next time.
Marlene Vicknair
LaPlace
I think it would be useful to have people evacuate by ZIP code and times. For example, before the hurricane hit to explain that everyone should wait for their cue to evacuate and then a route be given in advance for each ZIP code and then before the hurricane, a time should be announced for each ZIP code to leave and a particular route, and therefore they could manage the traffic out of the city. The same for a return.
Julia Sathler
New Orleans
I feel that the emergency management people need to keep their heads about them. I felt that they sounded like Chicken Little telling us the sky was going to fall when I could see on the television from noon Sunday that the storm was not going to come here and we would be on the west side, and they refused to accept reality.
Cheryl Renner
Mandeville
As a resident of Destrehan's Red Church subdivision and a victim of the rash of burglaries committed in my neighborhood, my first inclination would be to stay at home, to not leave my house. As my husband so accurately described the feeling of walking into our burglarized home - our safe haven, a place where your entire family comes together - he said, "I feel like I've been raped." Yes, we were violated.
Angela Johnson
Destrehan
There's a prophetic statement in the Bible that states "be ready in season and out of season." But people will just brush this experience to another memory bank until the threat reappears next season. Then we'll rehash the same complaints and fears and of course blame it on someone else.
Anne D. Martorana
Slidell
It took my family five hours to get to the airport and eight hours to get to Baton Rouge. If the city is going to have an emergency evacuation, use all the lanes out of the city to evacuate. Only allow emergency vehicles to come in, and let them come in to the city on two lanes designated for emergency vehicles on Airline Highway.
Al Casseri
Gretna
The news media and Emergency Management did a very poor job of informing the public about alternate evacuation routes and their traffic conditions. The only traffic records I saw or heard was about the local I-10 and one report I heard about taking the I-59 east to Hattiesburg and then taking I-49 NW. What about evacuation routes on the west side of the river, such as Highway 90, 20, 1 and 3127? These are possible routes to Donaldsonville and Lafayette... What about the Causeway, La. 61 and highways 18, 48 and 190?
Robert Bagnetto
Metairie
While I understand the reasoning for serious consideration to evacuate the city in the event of a hurricane, one must remember that this was a Category 2 storm and nowhere near a Betsy or Camille. The cost of those evacuating and the cost of down time to business will be in the millions. The media was out of control and for this one reason, the citizens of New Orleans felt the urge to leave. What frightens me most is that after this experience when the big one does come, no one will listen. I've heard many people say, "Next time, I'm not leaving."
Maggie Wittke
Kenner
Once again Entergy has upheld its reputation in New Orleans. After spending two days without power, I was thankful to finally have my power restored on Tuesday evening and was willing to give Entergy a break considering the circumstances. That was until Wednesday morning, while driving on Almonaster near France Road. I noticed, tucked out of public view, a fleet of trucks and workers sitting idle... I have learned one lesson from Entergy: Invest in a generator; at least you can depend on it.
Ryan Percle
New Orleans
Better assistance is needed from police and sheriff departments in Ascension and East Baton Rouge parishes to open Airline Highway to larger volumns of traffic - particularly with the construction on I-10. New Orleans needs fewer large evacuation shelters and more small evacuation shelters. This would allow residents to stay in their own neighborhoods... TV and radio coverage of the approaching storm on Saturday was insufficient. I know it was hard to stations to lose big money associated with Saturday sports advertising, but hourly updates were not enough for residents trying to determine when and if they should leave their homes.
Gary and Kelly Gauthier
Kenner
Entergy needs to practice preventive maintenance. Two to three hundred thousand people should not lose power during a minimal hurricane. In my neighborhood, a dead tree that was near power lines and brought to Entergy's attention weeks ago was ignored. "We'll deal with it when it causes a problem," was Entergy's response. Unfortunately, the whole neighborhood has to "deal" with it.
Jeff Mattson
New Orleans
We planned ahead. When we saw the path from Florida, we were on the road to relatives in Tennessee. We left Wednesday night. And we will continue to plan ahead. We have learned from the past that it is never too early to leave for a hurricane... Oh God, we just kept on praying and praying. The key is to plan ahead. Don't take a lot if you don't have to... You can replace material things. You can't replace lives.
E.A. Bolton
Boothville
One of the positive parts of the hurricane was not hearing, thinking or being aware of what was going on with President Clinton and Monica Lewisnsky.
Mary Haar
Metairie
GRAPHIC: STAFF PHOTO BY JOHN McCUSKER
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