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Hurricane evacuation contraflow plan for Southeast LA

PICAYUNE, Miss. — Louisiana and Mississippi officials said Tuesday they’ve fine-tuned hurricane contraflow plans to alleviate traffic congestion not only on interstates but also in small southern Mississippi towns that bear the brunt of Louisiana’s evacuees looking for shelter, gas, food and restrooms.

Col. Mike Edmonson, superintendent of Louisiana State Police, also said that for the first time, Mississippi officials will be inside Louisiana’s Emergency Operations Center when it opens for a hurricane.

“Now if there’s a problem with contraflow, we’ll be able to fix it immediately because they’ll be in there with us,” Edmonson said.

He and other officials from the two states held a joint news conference Tuesday at the Mississippi Welcome Center just over the Mississippi line on Interstate 59 where they announced a few changes to the contraflow system.

One change will occur when Mississippi extends contraflow on I-59 by 31 miles, allowing the interstate’s four lanes of traffic to move north until just a few miles south of Hattiesburg, said Mike Huff, law enforcement director for the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

Mississippi also plans to close exits temporarily along the interstate if traffic congestion builds up in small towns, including Picayune and Poplarville. The exits would be closed only until traffic clears up, Huff added.

“This is not a slight to Louisiana residents,” he said. “We welcome folks coming out of Louisiana. But this will help alleviate traffic congestion that starts in a town and ends up backing up the interstate — which is what happened during Gustav.”

Huff called the plan “fluid” and said officials were trying to make contraflow move as smoothly as possible.

He also urged all residents to “have an evacuation plan and leave early.”

Huff said I-10 just across the Mississippi line near Slidell would be closed to eastbound traffic during an evacuation.

“When a hurricane is a few days out, you don’t know where it’s going to make landfall. Hurricane Katrina was first forecast to make landfall in Florida, but that ended up not happening,” Huff said. “It just doesn’t make much sense to be traveling along the coast. People need to head north in an evacuation.”

Louisiana residents also can use, among other routes, I-55 through Hammond, I-49 through Lafayette, and U.S. 165, near Lake Charles, to travel north.

“We just expanded U.S. 165 to four lanes,” said Bill Ankner, secretary of Louisiana’s Department of Transportation and Development. “And it was specifically designed for contraflow. It will take people to Alexandria.”

Edmonson warned that those who do not evacuate early will be at the mercy of contraflow.

Mississippi and Louisiana officials both said there will also be some provisions available on the contraflow routes, including fuel, water, tow trucks and portable restroom facilities.

“I just don’t understand it when people leave in an evacuation without any food, water or just a few gallons of gas,” Edmonson said. “These are some of the things we saw during Gustav.”

Evacuees shouldn’t depend on the state to give them free tanks of gasoline.

“We’re only going to be putting a couple of gallons in a car. That’s it. We’re not going to be filling them up,” Ankner said.

During planning for the 2009 hurricane season, Louisiana also took into account the slumping economy, said Mark Cooper, director of Louisiana’s Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

Cooper said in the past, the state estimated there were 40,000 people who needed help with transportation during an evacuation. This year, they’ve increased that estimate to 50,000.

“We have about 14,000 spots in shelters in Louisiana,” Cooper said. “We have about 26,000 spots in other states and now we have verbal commitments for the additional spots we need.”

Both states also plan to tap into some of the newer technologies to communicate with residents.

“One of the things we learned is that during Gustav, people didn’t know what was happening,” Ankner said. “We hope using technology like Twitter will help fix that.”

He encouraged residents to sign up for the networking program so they will be ready to receive Twitter messages on Internet-enabled cell phones or on their computers.

Another improvement in both states involves emergency radio communications. Louisiana State Police lost the ability to communicate during Hurricane Katrina.

“We went from having 36 towers in Louisiana to 212 towers now,” Edmonson said of the state’s new 700 mega-hertz radio system.

Edmonson said it will take about 600 police and other emergency personnel to make contraflow work.

Mississippi plans to deploy 60-member law enforcement teams to various staging areas along the contraflow route to augment local law enforcement.

“Those units will be transferred to search-and-rescue teams if the need arises after the storm,” said Steve Simpson, Mississippi Department of Public Safety commissioner.

ON THE INTERNET:
Louisiana: http://www.getagameplan.org
Mississippi: http://www.gomdot.com