Posted on 05/22/2006 3:34:55 PM PDT by Ellesu
NEW ORLEANS — For the next two days, Louisiana will put local, state and federal emergency plans and communications systems to the test as a would-be Category 3 hurricane hits the state's Gulf Coast.
About 80 evacuees played by volunteers will board New Orleans buses and head to the city's convention center and train station, where they'll be tagged with wristbands for tracking. In a real hurricane, the evacuees would be taken from New Orleans by bus or train to shelters first within the state and then elsewhere depending upon occupancy.
It's all part of Mayor Ray Nagin's new city-assisted evacuation plan unveiled earlier this month. Last year, as Hurricane Katrina approached, thousands of the city's poor were left behind because they had no transportation, couldn't afford to leave or didn't know where to go.
"This is our first chance to walk through our plan," said Jerry Sneed, an official with the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security. "We've got some technology we're trying to use so we know who we're putting on the buses and where they're going."
City and state officials are still counting on most people evacuating on their own. Last year, about a million people drove out of the New Orleans area in time for Katrina, and the outbound routes have not been changed.
Nagin's city-assisted plan for those without a way out calls for the use of airlines and trains to aid with the outbound flow, though details are still being worked out.
The drills on Tuesday and Wednesday will include local, state and federal officials, including Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Blanco, as well as the National Guard.
Tuesday's exercise will involve mock evacuations of New Orleans and the state's largest travel-trailer site for Katrina and Rita evacuees in Baker, La., a Baton Rouge suburb. About 1,500 people live there.
The small-scale evacuations in New Orleans and Baker will include volunteers and not involve mass departures.
On Wednesday, the drill will involve a post-landfall exercise where responders react to reports of power outages, downed phone lines and fallen trees or other structures.
"It's the most comprehensive exercise we've done so far," said Mark Smith, spokesman for the state's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
Forecasters say the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1 and runs through November, could bring nine hurricanes that threaten populated areas, five of them intense.
Both Blanco and Nagin have warned residents to expect to evacuate more frequently than in previous years. Nagin plans to order evacuations for hurricanes as weak as Category 2, or those with sustained winds of 96 mph or higher.
Katrina was a Category 3; a Category 5 is the most severe, with sustained winds of more than 155 mph. Winds that powerful can blow away entire buildings and bring tidal surges of more than 18 feet.
I don't know but it's been said
Nagin's got a shiny head
stroke 2,3,4 stroke 2,3,4
What brought this on????? Did he have some kind of epiphany??????
That's 75 years now. Don't you think the Democrats would finally get it right?
New Orleans evacuation drills - are these like Chinese fire drills?
One little note I have seen creeping in about Ray Nagin in the MSM - they equated him to being the "Republican" in the recent N.O. election (as compared to Mitch Landrieu), and may be setting him up as their new "straw man", whom they can knock down, and point covertly to his "ties with the Republicans".
Instead of swimming they could use Nagin's fleet of yellow submarines.
"About 80 evacuees played by volunteers will board New Orleans buses and head to the city's convention center and train station, where they'll be tagged with wristbands for tracking. In a real hurricane, the evacuees would be taken from New Orleans by bus or train to shelters first within the state and then elsewhere depending upon occupancy."
Wow, you mean they actually have a PLAN this time?
I have no words........
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