Hurricane season is back. The current season follows a 2008 season that was busy enough: an evacuation of south Louisiana and landfall of Hurricane Gustav. Local officials say Gustav taught them a lot.
"Gustav was the first time we ever tried anything like this," said Col. Jerry Sneed, the director of New Orleans office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. He estimates the city helped evacuate 18,000 or so residents, while most others found a way out on their own. Col. Sneed says the evacuation plan here in New Orleans is the same: everybody out for a Category 3 or greater storm.
Listen to Col. Jerry Sneed:
Sneed says they have assurances from the state that state-run shelters will be in better condition this time.
"We worked very closely with DSS (the state Department of Social Services)," Sneed said. "The state, I'm not sure they were quite ready, and they have done their 'lessons learned,' they have everything in place."
Sneed says their goal is to make sure the public knows that anywhere is preferable to New Orleans during a hurricane, even a shelter.
"Our citizens need to remember how ugly it is in New Orleans without power, possibly without water, those type of things," he said.
In addition to urging people who need help to register for the city-assisted evacuation plan, Sneed also urges business owners to register with the city for its tiered reentry, to get things back to normal as quickly as possible once the weather clears.
"If they haven't gotten their tiers, please, go up on our web site, and submit," said Sneed. "Go to the
CityofNO web site, and just go to Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and get all the information they need."
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