Luckily, this time around, there is competent leadership at the state level in Governor Bobby Jindal:
Three years after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Louisiana coast, New Orleans residents on Wednesday again confronted the prospect of an evacuation as Tropical Storm Gustav loomed.
Not since Katrina struck on August 29, 2005, have residents faced a forced departure from their homes and businesses as many still struggle to rebuild their lives in a city famed for its jazz clubs and Mardi Gras festival.
Storm levees broke under the onslaught of Katrina, flooding 80 percent of New Orleans and killing almost 1,500 people in the city and along the Gulf of Mexico coast. The hurricane caused $125 billion in wind and flood damage.
With Tropical Storm Gustav swirling near Cuba and likely to enter the Gulf of Mexico as a hurricane this weekend, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said an evacuation could begin as early as Friday — three years to the day after Katrina inundated New Orleans.
Officials across Louisiana are kicking preparations into high gear – and warning those who intend to stay behind:
Parish government’s plans would not kick off until five days before the storm’s projected landfall, said Deano Bonano, aide to Parish President Aaron Broussard. Most pressing now, however, are applications for re-entry placards: The parish plans to stop issuing new ones by Thursday at noon.
Re-entry placards, those tickets to return home after the danger passes but while roads might still be closed to traffic, can be ordered online through the parish’s Web site, www.jeffparish.net or directly at www.jumpstartjefferson.com. Placards are valid for two years, so residents who received theirs last year do not have to reapply.
Gustav’s arrival could inaugurate the parish’s new disaster management plans, drawn up after officials scrapped the previous “doomsday plan” that left an ignoble legacy from Hurricane Katrina.
For the first time, Jefferson authorities can enact a new mandatory evacuation law to force residents to flee the area. Within 60 hours of the projected landfall, a curfew will be imposed, Bonano said. Anyone who doesn’t evacuate will be confined to their private property and no services will be guaranteed, he warned.
“If you stay, you’re on your own,” Bonano said.
Unfortunately, plenty will stay even if Gustav heads their way. We’ll likely have to contend with that problem in Houston as well should the storm head our way. Memories of the nightmarish evacuations ahead of Hurricane Rita may lead many to think twice about leaving.
