By Lisa Yates
Editor
The incredible destructive force of Hurricane Ike that demolished the Texas coast near Galveston Bay is a prime example of what can occur during a major storm. Hurricane Ike proved that for a direct hit, virtually nothing will survive the unbridled fury of 110 m.p.h. or higher winds.
Although Southwest Louisiana survived a direct hit, the peripheral damage was extensive. Nearly every square inch of coastline in Southwest Louisiana flooded as the storm surge ahead of Ike blew ashore.
The Category 2 hurricane produced a storm surge the magnitude of a Category 4. Hundreds of people had to be rescued, including 363 people who were rescued by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Search and Rescue teams in conjunction with the Louisiana National Guard and the U.S. Coast Guard.
In Lake Charles, by 5 a.m. on Sept. 13, the rising storm surge began overlapping the seawall by the civic center. As a result of the surge, the community suffered power outages and major flooding, which damaged homes and businesses. Even though there were advance evacuation plans, Randy Roach, mayor of the city of Lake Charles, estimated that more than 25 percent of the city's residents paid no attention to calls for them to evacuate. “Part of the reason was hurricane fatigue,” he said.
News that another hurricane was coming – and more official warnings -- had many saying “enough already!” That, coupled with economic challenges and the popular perception that Gustav was a false alarm, kept many people from evacuating their homes for the second time in 10 days.
To counter the complacency, public officials walked a fine line during Hurricane Ike. They worked to keep the public safe, at the same time they tried not cause undue angst. What was the thought process behind some of their decisions?
City and parish officials recently sat down with The Times to discuss emergency planning, preparedness and recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. This is what they had to say.
Emergency Planning
With a “boots on the ground approach” Mayor Roach said the city's role was and is to ensure that the City of Lake Charles can respond effectively to any major incident and recover from it as quickly as possible.
“Our role is to provide police and fire protection and to help manage the evacuation process,” he said. “We worked very closely with the parish through Hurricanes Gustav and Ike managing the evacuation at the civic center. Our employees were very involved. ... It was a very labor intensive, high energy process.”
Roach said city employees, in conjunction with members of Louisiana's National Guard and state authorities, worked from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. assisting citizens, both the general population without transportation, and those with special needs. A total of 1,500 evacuated to shelters in Northwest Louisiana.
Mayor Roach explained the difference between the two populations evacuated. Those with special needs require a certain level of specialized medical care, while those of the general population are generally healthy and do not require specialized medical care, but lack transportation to evacuate.
“Some of the general population use wheelchairs, but they are generally healthy – lack of mobility is their only handicap. Otherwise, they can travel on a coach bus and they don't require specialized care,” Roach said.
Nurses and public health officials assisted critical care patients with transportation to Chennault International Airport, where they were loaded aboard C-130 cargo aircraft and flown to hospitals around the region. Within 72 hours the entire process was repeated in reverse bringing people home. By contrast, during Hurricane Gustav even more citizens were evacuated and returned, including, 230 with special care needs population and 2,000 of the general population.
“The evacuation during Gustav was the largest ever in the history of the state,” Roach said. Evacuation was just one of the planning challenges during Hurricane Ike. Planning for safety, security and city services were other challenges. “In addition to fire and police, public works employees are part of the first response team,” the mayor said.
Armed with chainsaws, public works employees efficiently removed debris following the storms. Dick Gremillion, Director of the Calcasieu Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said planning for debris removal after a storm is critical. “Down power lines and debris in the road the roads is dangerous after the event,” he said. “It slows down search and rescue – also, it slows utility workers trying to repair lines and restore power.”
Gremillion said many agencies work together coordinating communications and services in preparation for a disaster. The Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness; American Red Cross; Louisiana State Police; Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals; Louisiana's Department of Transportation and Development; and, Louisiana's Department of Social Services are amongst the state agencies involved in the planning process.
“Planning is a 12 month-of-the-year process,” Gremillion said. He added, there's a plan for providing transportation, disaster information, shelters, evacuation routes and more. “After Gustav, we adjusted the transportation and sheltering parts of our plan,” Gremillion said. “There were a lot more people than we anticipated.”
As a result, the plan for Hurricane Ike went much smoother, he said. Citizens evacuated from the Lake Charles area and were sent to shelter facilities in Shreveport. Accommodations were better, security was provided and residents were brought home in a timelier manner, according to reports. Officials also reported that technical glitches with the CalcaShout Emergency Alert System were fixed and the system worked well during Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. A reported 22,000 people are currently enrolled in the system.
The CalcaShout Emergency Alert System is a free service and it allows residents in Calcasieu Parish to designate an alternate e-mail address or telephone number where an e-mail, voice or text message can be quickly sent in an emergency. To enroll in CalcaShout, residents may call the Office of Emergency Preparedness at (337) 721-3800, or register online at www.cppj.net, or www.calcasieustorm.com.
Preparedness/Response
Emergency planning, preparedness/response and recovery are the three phases you go through with disasters such as Ike, according to the mayor. “The response is the implementation part of the plan,” he said. Planning and preparation can prevent the worst, but flexibility is a key factor in responding to disasters.
For example, the city opened temporary emergency shelters called “shelters of last resort” to give residents a place to go, where they would not be alone. Officials asked evacuees using the shelters to furnish their own medicine, bedding and personal items as American Red Cross volunteers would not be available and no food would be served.
“We were not faced with a Category 3 storm, so we had some flexibility,” Roach said. Anything a Category 3, or higher, would have put the evacuees at the shelters in danger, he said. All throughout the storm, residents and others were kept informed by news conferences held by local elected officials and emergency responders.
Gremillion said that officials met regularly to update the public. A mandatory evacuation was ordered in Calcasieu Parish for those living in low-lying areas or trailers. Special-needs residents were also asked to evacuate. For everyone else, evacuation was strongly recommended.
“We have a short window – 72 hours to implement our plan,” Gremillion said. During that time, he said that the special needs population was evacuated, including those in nursing homes and hospitals. Provisions were also made for prisoners and pets. Those heeding early evacuation orders experienced problems evacuating on I-10 towards Texas. Many were unaware of mandatory evacuations in Texas that brought traffic to a standstill.
When asked if Louisiana and Texas co-operated implementing evacuation plans, Gremillion said “no.” “In Calcasieu Parish, we advise people to go north,” he said. “It is not recommended to go east or west. In Southeast Texas, you have almost a million people vs. 300,000 in Southwest Louisiana.” He said the recommended routes are U.S. 171 North to Shreveport, or U.S. 165 North to Alexandria.
Other recommended routes included U.S. 27 North and U.S. 109 North following state signs, he said. Gremillion said not to believe the old adage that big hurricanes hit this area only once every 50 years. “That reminds me of what (National Weather Service forecaster) Steve Rinard once said, 'your chances of getting hit by a hurricane this year are just the same as last year,'” Gremillion said. “Only God decides.”
In an effort to keep the public informed and to help the community prepare for hurricane season, Gremillion said he participates in educational outreach programs speaking to local civic groups and other organizations.
“If you're going to live in Southwest Louisiana, you've got to learn about this – and, there are many sources of that information.” he said. In addition to the parish's Web sites, Gremillion said the public can visit www.getagameplan.org to find out what to do, where to go and who to call when there's a hurricane.
Another source of information is a printed guide entitled: Louisiana Citizen Awareness & Disaster Evacuation Guide: Southwest 2008. The guide is available by calling the Louisiana State Police at (800) 469-4828, or American Red Cross at (800) 229-8191, or GOHSEP at (225) 925-7500. “One day you're watching the news, then one day you're on the news,” Gremillion said.
Recovery
Officials said the most destructive element of Hurricane Ike was the storm surge. The hardest hit areas were in and around Cameron Parish, which also sustained catastrophic damage in 2005 from Hurricane Rita, and in 1957, from Hurricane Audrey.
In Calcasieu Parish, as predicted, the storm surge backed up water in the Calcasieu River and caused flooding in low-lying areas. In addition, wind gusts of 75 m.p.h. and higher caused widespread and extended power outages. In the aftermath of a hurricane the size of Ike, the difficulty of getting back to everyday living has been difficult. Recovery efforts started early and have been ongoing. City, parish and state officials took immediate action.
“Recovery efforts started the next day,” Mayor Roach said. “It started with search and rescue … That was the primary focus of Day 1.” After a flood, drinking water sources can potentially be contaminated with waste. A lack of clean water can pose a serious health threat.
The potential for cholera, typhoid and dehydrating diseases can come as a result of stagnant water and flood conditions. Flooding can destroy sewage systems and wash toxic chemicals and agricultural products into the mix. The biggest problem is the sewage contamination of the water.
Mayor Roach said water treatment plants were checked to see if they were operating, and whether to issue a boil water notice. He said a boil order was not issued. However, residents were asked to stop all unnecessary water use, and the use of wastewater facilities, for a couple of days beginning on Sept. 13.
The mayor said rising flood waters threatened discharge pipes located above the lake and bayous. Power and utilities are being restored rapidly and, by the time of publication, most businesses and homes will have utilities fully restored. Clean up has already begun and in no time, Lake Charles and the surrounding communities are expected to be back as good as ever.
“Cameron is altogether different,” Roach said. “We need to be thinking about our friends and our families in Cameron Parish. Right now, the urgency is to clean up the debris and rebuild the business community.”
As a former representative of Cameron Parish, the mayor said he became close to the people there and he values their friendship, spirit and unique way of life. He fears that the recent storms will have many residents leaving the community permanently, thus changing the cultural identity of the region. “As tragic as the devastation to the infrastructure, more tragic would be to allow the storms to rob us of our unique cultural heritage,” Roach said.
