New Orleans to be emptied for next storm: officials

[superconnected]

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Reuters) - Everyone in New Orleans must evacuate the low-lying city the next time a hurricane threatens and no shelters will be offered for those who stay, officials said on Tuesday.

Hoping to avoid a repeat of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when thousands struggled to survive after ignoring evacuation orders, they said planes, trains and buses would be used to move people out and the Superdome football stadium would not be open for refuge.

"Today the population stands around 200,000 to 225,000 people in New Orleans," said Orleans Parish Homeland Security Advisor Terry Ebbert. "Our goal is to ensure that we create an environment where it makes more sense to leave than to stay,"

"We want all 225,000 people to get out of the city," he said. Before Katrina, New Orleans had nearly half a million residents, but many who fled the storm have not returned.




http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060328/us_nm/hurricanes_evacuations_dc

[flyingfysh]

1. lots of people had no choice

Many people had no way to get out of town: no cars, no money, nothing. And some were in hospitals or nursing homes, physically unable to get anywhere else. So are they being blamed for "ignoring" evacuation orders?

[Igel]

4. I don't see any blame being cast.

Just intention.

"Hoping to avoid a repeat of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when thousands struggled to survive after ignoring evacuation orders, they said planes, trains and buses would be used to move people out and the Superdome football stadium would not be open for refuge." In other words, transportation will be provided. This was the plan they were supposed to have been developing over the last decade, but never actually developed--they'd get to a residue of 10-20% of the population, shrug their shoulders, and go out for crawfish boil. Most of the dead were mobile; as of a few months ago, anecdotal evidence was suggesting most of the dead didn't want to leave; not all, and some people just focus on the ones that weren't. I suspect next time, some people won't want to leave and will assume there'll be enough outcry over denial of services to those remaining to force some to be provided.

As for hospitals and nursing homes, they were to have their own plans in place. The hospitals needed to wait for authorization to move people--not from FEMA, but other Fed agencies--and either didn't ask or it came too late to be useful (they'd have asked on a Sunday morning, needing an answer in a couple of hours). The nursing homes found that they had mostly contracted with a small number of companies; the companies overcommitted their resources, and in any event didn't do as they were contracted to. Those should be fun lawsuits.

[theHandpuppet]

25. When you state the situation thusly: "after IGNORING evacuation orders..."

... then blame is being cast. Just as you are casting blame on everyone and everything (even on the dead, who cannot testify on their own behalf) but FEMA or the government agencies involved. Interesting, I must say.

[waiting for hope]

2. Great....

and answer this, how come no one came forward before and right after Katrina and offered shelter? I asked that question when the neocons were blaming the people that stayed of their fate....Where would have they gone? Sure, a shit load of buses, but to where? Nobody from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma or any other state said they would provide shelter to those who needed it - it wasn't till about what, a week or so after, the Astrodome suddenly became available....Fix the GD levees!

[rsmith6621]

3. Buses????????.......

Do They mean the ones that got wet last year....Ill bet Sean Hannity is having an erection sinced they used the BUS WORD.

[Jack_DeLeon]

5. LoL I seriously doubt it will happen...

Government cannot and should not try to force everyone to leave.

There will always be people who for what ever reason are unable to leave.

There will also always be people who will choose to stay.

While I think it is good to encourage as many people to leave as possible, but I have serious doubts in the governemnt. Even if everyone in the city chose to leave I dont think the government has the ability to make it possible.

[Appalachian_American]

6. I hope they will allow them to take their pets.

[LeftyMom]

29. Provisions must be made

Otherwise people stay behind with thier animals.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. CNN: FEMA to get tough with next hurricane

FEMA to get tough with next hurricane
Federal, state officials focus on evacuation and coordination
Tuesday, March 28, 2006

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (CNN) -- The Gulf Coast will be widely and quickly evacuated this hurricane season, even if the storm doesn't threaten to smash levees and leave a metropolis under water, state and federal officials said Tuesday.

The thousands of families displaced by Hurricane Katrina make the need for prompt evacuation dire, added one official.

"We have probably 94,000 travel trailers out there with families in them spread across three states, and these people have to be evacuated during even a Category 1 hurricane," said David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Paulison met with Louisiana officials and representatives from six coastal parishes to hammer out federal, state and local coordination for the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season, which begins on June 1 and lasts until the end of November....

***

Another measure announced Tuesday was that New Orleans, Louisiana, will have no "shelters of last resort" for the city's 225,000 parish residents....The Superdome served that role during Katrina, with thousands taking refuge inside the 269,000-square-foot stadium. Evacuees were left without food, water or electricity for days, prompting widespread criticism of the government's handling of the disaster....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/28/fema.prep/index.html

[bemildred]

8. Talk is cheap. Real cheap in Bushite Washington. nt

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

9. I haven't heard yet- how did the Aussies do with THEIR storm?

I haven't heard a single report about it since it came ashore. Which means, I hope, they actually knew how to do a rapid response and minimize the damage?

[rooboy]

11. Widespread destruction, but only 1 death.

North Queensland is not New Orleans, however. A general (former head of our defence forces) has been sent to the area to oversee the recovery effort. John Howard has been there and pledged interest-free loans and grants to the displaced. Mental health workers have been sent there to counsel people who need help (1500 have used this service so far).

Although it's not New Orleans, the response has been pretty good so far - wheels are turning and the power is expected to be back on to everyone this week.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

13. I'm glad SOMEWHERE in the world there remains competence

:yourock:

[JusticeForAll]

10. sure...

:eyes:

[Rex]

12. The Dept. of Planning is getting tough on hurricanes!

The 5 point plan outlined another plan to strategies about opening up an investigation as to if we should form a committee to discuss, over a period of years, whatever it is that needs addressing someday.

[shance]

15. No. It means they'll bring in troops and evacuate the city and take

it over.

They've learned lessons from New Orleans.

Wake up America. Wake up from the denial.

This is anything but incompetence.

[hatrack]

14. What are they going to do? Call in some B-2s and bomb it?

"Get Tough!" Ugh! Ugh! Me hurt big bad windstorm! Then go judge Arabian horses! Ugh! Ugh!

:eyes:

[shance]

16. It means they will get tough on Americans. Wake up and look at

the patterns everyone.

It's not that difficult to see the writing on the wall.

[madrchsod]

17. what are they going to do if the

hurricane season tends toward the eastern seaboard? there are conditions developing that would create this scenario...

[dweller]

18. War on Mother Nature ...

has been ongoing for the past century.

She's winning.

dp

[rodeodance]

19. what--no quitars, no cake? boring!

[davhill]

20. How tough can they get

With no budget increase and the national guard still in Iraq?

[Whoa_Nelly]

21. Fuck You, FEMA!

It's time to "get tough" on helping all those who survived Katrina.

Just FUCK YOU!

[Kailassa]

22. Louisiana, will have no "shelters of last resort"

That part is believable, this time no shelter at all will be provided to anyone.

As for the push to make sure everyone evacuates, I can see it now. Evicting familes from their houses at gunpoint and telling them to start walking, or busing them to concentration camp style places where they will be disappeared forever.

Does anyone remember a barbed-wire fenced Fema camp some refugees were taken to that no reporters were allowed into? (Btw, the word "refugee" might be politically incorrect, but I'm using out out sympathy for those who lost everything and were cast out into a "blame the victim" society.)

I still worry about the people who were incarcerated there.

[Lisa]

23. they have to plan smarter, not necessarily bigger!

If a Category 1 veers towards Miami, and Bush's people freak out and mount some huge grandstanding operation which (if their past performance is any guide) is more designed to look impressive on the news than actually help people in an appropriate manner -- this could do more harm than good.

The feds should help out the local officials if they are having trouble with emergency planning and co-ordination -- and be ready to step in and do the heavy lifting if multiple areas run into problems (for example, if a really big storm hits). But if they are mainly focused on justifying themselves to the public, and appearing to be in charge, they could end up getting in the way (especially if they send down a bunch of people who don't know the area and, like some of the Bush appointees, are new at emergency management). I know some people who were helping with the organization of the response in Mississippi, and at one point FEMA showed up and told some of the support staff (who were busy updating maps and getting the information to the military and other agencies) to leave. Because the new people didn't know the mapping software and didn't know the local geography, the field people began to complain because it was hampering their efforts, at a time when precious hours were at stake.

Of course there are lots of good people at FEMA, but it seems like they weren't being listened to (like the guy stationed at the Superdome who kept trying to get through to Brown). I hope that the brass are taking their recommendations into account, with these new strategies.

p.s. this administration seems to equate "effectiveness" with "running around with guns", which doesn't really address the major concerns. It's one thing to force people to leave at gunpoint, and another to provide enough transportation and facilities so they can do so in a prompt, painless, and dignified manner (tearing families apart and threatening to shoot anyone who makes a fuss isn't a sign of a "strong response" -- it shows lack of preparedness).

[Coastie for Truth]

24. Who's going to get tough and leave old and poor folks behind?

<>
Saint Florian, Patron Saint of Firefighters, Medics, Coast Guards
and those who go in harms to rescue those in peril


<><>

Some put themselves in harms way to rescue those in peril

[baby_mouse]

26. FEMA to Lauch Pre-emptive Strike on next Hurricane Eye

"This should be over in 5 days" says O'Reilly, "Small gusts of wind trapped by the hurricane to feed its core will bee freed and will shower our path with rose-petals", says some dick-for-brains, etc.

[dipsydoodle]

27. Very droll

No harm in some humour even if it is with regard to a serious subject.

[wordpix]

31. when will FEMA issue a "no build in wetland/storm surge area" order?

That to me seems to be a main issue. Taxpayers must constantly pay out to help people who've built where they never should have, whever it's in a river floodplain, ocean front or NO wetlands below sea level.

[rocktivity]

28. Had the levees been fixed, evacuation may have been unnecessary

And when Bush decided not to finish fixing the levees, he should have sat down with state and local governments and put together an evacuation/relocation/restoration plan right down to which hotels would be commandeered and which school districts would take up the excess kids. And while I appreciate their preparing to do a better job next time, I'd also like to know that they're preparing for a better aftermath, too.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Bridget Burke]

30. Most of the destruction in NOLA was the result of flooding.

Other parts of the Gulf Coast suffered more direct storm damage. For that kind of damage, evacuation is the only answer. Then you go back & pick up the pieces.

But much of the damage in NOLA could have been prevented.

(Not that ANY Gulf Coast storm victims have been treated fairly.)