[StBernard] Council eager for storm plan

[Westley Annis]

Council eager for storm plan
Rodriguez says it will be coming soon 
Thursday, May 18, 2006
By Karen Turni Bazile
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau 
The start of hurricane season is only two weeks away, but St. Bernard Parish
officials have yet to formally announce the parish's hurricane plan. 

 
The delay irks some members of the St. Bernard Parish Council, who have
called for Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez's administration to go
public with its plan for this season. 

Rodriguez said his administrative staff wasn't ready for a May 8 storm
planning and review meeting called by the council and attended by other
local government agencies. But he promised the council Tuesday that his
administrators would discuss a storm review and plans at a meeting Monday in
Chalmette. 

Larry Ingargiola, director of the parish's Office of Homeland Security and
Emergency Preparedness, said that an evacuation plan does exist and has been
modified from last year to address the increased number of residents living
in trailers. The plan is expected to require all residents living in
trailers to evacuate for any storms with 50 mph or greater winds. It would
also call for a mandatory evacuation of the entire parish for a Category 2
or greater hurricane. 

There is no plan to open any shelters of last resort. Ingargiola said that
anyone with special needs who will need transportation for a storm should
call his office at 278-4268 to let parish officials plan to help them. 

Ingargiola said council members have had a copy of the written disaster plan
on their desks since January, and the revised evacuation plan -- completed a
few weeks ago -- is being typed up to be distributed at next Thursday's
annual hurricane briefing with all pertinent local and state entities. 

"It's based on input from all the meetings I have been to with the state
agencies and State Police," Ingargiola said. Because of Katrina, council
members "have the experience, but I have the education. I have been to the
schools. I have the training." 

"It's not the council's place to do emergency preparedness," Ingargiola
said. "They are the legislative branch of government, not the administrative
branch. It is the president and myself that makes the decision for parish
government" in an emergency. 

Ingargiola said the administration has signed a contract with Col. Bill
Croft, a retired emergency planning official with the Louisiana National
Guard, to review last year's response as an unbiased outside professional.
Under the terms of the $25,000 contract being paid for with a federal
homeland security grant, Croft will interview all local elected officials
and department heads and present a review and recommendations for addressing
deficiencies by mid-June. 

Nonetheless, the administration's lack of participation in the council's May
8 storm planning and review session has irked some council members. 

"We had a hurricane meeting," Councilman Vice Chairman Joey DiFatta said.
"Administration didn't produce anything at the time. They want to make a
presentation to everyone at the May 25 meeting. I would have hoped we would
have had it before now so we could look at it and tweak it since we have all
lived through it. Our first-hand knowledge would have been helpful." 

That meeting May 25 is the annual parish hurricane summit. 

Meanwhile, at Tuesday's council meeting Councilman Craig Taffaro reported on
a council-led review of the parish's response to Katrina. He said officials
executed their existing emergency plans for Katrina, but unfortunately,
those plans failed to anticipate the overwhelming catastrophe produced by
Katrina's winds and storm surge that left about 9,000 rescued residents
stranded with little supplies at Chalmette High School and in a warehouse at
the St. Bernard Port, Harbor and Terminal District. 

Taffaro also said the council's Hurricane Review Panel still needs to work
with the Rodriguez administration on criteria for when to call mandatory
evacuations in this hurricane season. In addition, Taffaro said the parish
needs to improve its ability to communicate with agencies outside the parish
in the likelihood of another failure of traditional communication means. 

. . . . . . . 

Karen Turni Bazile can be reached at 504-826-3335 or
kturni at timespicayune.com.