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Big Easy evacuation plan: more buses, no shelters

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 3, 2006

NEW ORLEANS - Mayor Ray Nagin unveiled a new evacuation strategy for New Orleans on Tuesday that relies more on buses and trains and eliminates the Superdome and Convention Center as shelters.

"There will be no shelter of last resort in the event of a major hurricane coming our way," Nagin declared.

The mayor, facing a runoff election May 20, has been widely criticized for failing to get the city's most vulnerable residents out of town as Hurricane Katrina approached.

The Superdome and Morial Convention Center became a scene of misery for days after the Aug. 29 hurricane as thousands of evacuees, many of them ill or elderly, languished with shortages of food and water.

In the future, Nagin said, the Convention Center will be a staging point for evacuations, not a shelter.

"There will be a mandatory evacuation, and I would be shocked if people did not abide by it," Nagin said. "We're dealing with adults, so if you decide to disobey a mandatory evacuation, you are confining yourself to your home in an emergency."

Nagin also said federal Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had cleared the way for the use of Amtrak passenger trains in the event of an evacuation.

The new plan will take effect for any storms stronger than a Category 2, which have sustained winds of 111 mph or higher.

An alternate plan for smaller storms, relying on temporary shelters set up inside the city, is being devised for those now living in FEMA trailers. Most trailers become unstable once wind speeds surpass 45 mph, which would be a weak tropical storm.

The plan also addresses specific problems that arose during Katrina, such as tourists being stranded in hotels and looters raiding stores and damaging property.

"By default, whether we like it or not, we are the most experienced in this in the United States," New Orleans homeland security director Terry Ebbert said.

Ebbert said the emergency plan calls for a central hotel guest processing center with the aim of ensuring those with return plane tickets can rebook earlier departures. Ebbert said federal officials were working with the airlines on a plan to increase departures 36 hours before a storm is expected to strike.

People with special medical needs and the elderly would be picked up by city, school and church buses and taken to the train station or evacuated by bus to shelters farther north.

[Last modified May 3, 2006, 07:05:24]