Ray Nagin Visits Cuba to Learn About Disaster Preparedness

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is on a field trip to Cuba, on a State Department sanctioned expedition, in order to learn about disaster preparedness.

One might think that after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Ray Nagin would know just about all there is to know about how to prepare for a hurricane. Trial by fire, as they say. However, it seems as if Mayor Nagin believes he can learn something from Cuba.

Marco Rubio has a response at NRO's The Corner:

"In Cuba, it doesn’t take a hurricane to cause power outages; government rationing of electricity has been doing that for some time. The destruction of the agricultural economy didn't begin when storms destroyed crops; it began when the regime took control of the means of production. The country's infrastructure didn’t start crumbling because of hurricane-strength winds; it’s been deteriorating for decades, along with many aspects of Cuban life, because of a regime obsessed with using its limited resources to maintain power, deprive its people of fundamental liberties and close itself off from the free world.

But perhaps the worst part about the regime’s hurricane-mitigation program is its routine, cruel, and inhumane rejection of American aid."

Port of New Orleans president and CEO Larry LeGrange is all for the Nagin trip, however, and says that Nagin is exploring future trade opportunities with Cuba. He says when the trade embargo with Cuba is ended, Nagin's efforts can only help New Orleans.

Some NOLA residents are getting a little testy over Nagin's little jaunts, however. Earlier this summer, Nagin, his wife, and other city officials went to Shanghai and to Sydney which cost the taxpayers over $28,000. Nagin had promised a "sponsor" for that trip that never materialized. Part of the problem there is the possibility that someone with business ties to the city was footing the bill, which of course, would be unethical.

Nagin is not the first mayor to travel to Cuba for disaster preparedness; the mayor of Galveston, TX traveled to Cuba earlier this year.

Not everyone is impressed with Cuba's hurricane preparedness skills. Besides Rubio, another dissenting voice is George Fowler, a Cuban-American who is also the Vice President of the Cuban American National Foundation.

Fowler said, "we have very little to learn from Castro. It is a country that is embargoed by our own policies because it's been run by a dictator for 50 years. It is also one of four countries that our state department has declared to be a state sponsor of terrorism." While various news articles tout Cuba's success in hurricane preparedness, Fowler said it's communist propaganda, and he doesn't buy the delegation's explanation that New Orleans can learn valuable lessons in disaster readiness from Cuba.

At any rate, Nagin and company are in Cuba. At the very least, maybe Nagin can learn that when a hurricane hits your city, you don't barricade yourself in a luxury hotel "awaiting the federal cavalry." When he came out, he declared that New Orleans would once again be a "chocolate city."

Yes, maybe the Cuba trip isn't such a bad idea, after all!

Shreveport, Meet Ike

Horrible Hurricane

I am trying to figure out why people don't evacuate in a hurricane like the one about to decimate Galveston, Texas. I just read this article where an estimated 11,000 to 20,000 people did not leave an area where officials told them they would face "certain death." If someone told me that, and then instructed me to write my social security number on my arm with a permanent marker, I think I might pay attention.

It is so horrible to watch what is likely to be such a tragic situation develop. God knows we hope that the weather folks are giving worst case scenario but it sure sounds dire. I totally don't understand Geraldo Rivera standing on a beach in Galveston broadcasting on Fox News right now. He's holding up a meter saying "117 mph winds! 117!" All kinds of junk is flying all around him and he has another guy standing next to him holding him up! What a freaking idiot!!

As for us, WAY up here in north Louisiana, we are supposedly looking for winds 39-74 mph and 4-6 inches of rain with possibility for tornadoes. I'm paying attention. As I am sure all over the country, gas is hard to find. I got gas on the way home from work with little problem but I saw my neighbors around 5 who had been out for a while looking for some. It's OUT all over town. Where there IS any, there are long, long lines.

What is so scary about this storm is these media folks talking about how this is the worst storm in YEARS; how large it is and how large the eye is and how large the storm surge is. They are using adjectives that they don't usually use! Those poor folks in south-western Louisiana who are just beginning to recover from Hurricane Rita...

Say a little prayer tonight for those folks that stayed behind all over that part of Texas. I have some friends in Houston that I'm worried about. Hopefully this will be the last storm for this season!

I Don't Like Ike

I'm not freaking out yet but I'm not happy with this picture. We have just cleaned out the shelters and gotten those poor people back home! I seriously hope this track changes over the next few days; I don't wish a hurricane on anybody but we've had it in Louisiana. It wasn't on the national news so much, but we got some major damage from Gustav. Once the levees in NOLA didn't break and flood everything, the national media got up and left, but in Alexandria, Natchitoches, Baton Rouge, and other places further south and west, they took a hit. Huge numbers of people were still without power yesterday.

As far as the shelter business goes, Darrell Rebouche covered that pretty well in his blog and posted some photos as well. For me, the last photo he posted tells the story (go ahead, go look!). Steve's department went on 12s, (12 hour shifts) and he just went back to regular schedule yesterday. He's beyond exhausted.

From all accounts, most of the evacs were grateful for the help but as always, there were some that were not. There were some that thought FEMA ought to put them up in a Ramada Inn instead of a shelter. Some didn't want to obey the rules at the shelter, such as the curfew. Others wanted to fight and several were arrested. Some complained about the food and some complained about the facilities themselves.

We got into a discussion about this in my first block class yesterday as we were talking about this new hurricane. Even my students had heard the press about the ungrateful evacs and were displeased. I tried to caution them that we need to put ourselves "in their skin" as Atticus Finch would say, and try to imagine the incredible stress they are under. Most of those people did not know if their homes were okay; everyone remembers the Katrina pictures and certainly people were worried about looting. And then Ray Nagin was telling them they couldn't come home (as soon as they wanted to). Quite stressful, I'm sure. People were worried about their pets, and some pets were even evacuated here and were housed in a special shelter. In Steve's shelter a chihuahua got left behind when its owner left and Steve has been worrying about that dog getting back home for days. (It will).

At any rate, Dear Ike, we hope you weaken to a little late summer thunderstorm and drift away to someplace other than Louisiana. We don't need you.

Getting Out in Gustav

On the weather front, things seem to be okay. It's raining now but it's just a slow, steady rain; good sleeping weather. The "eye" is supposedly right over us and they are predicting more of the same as they have for days: rain, wind, blah.

But some things do not stop for hurricanes and one of those is Checkers. Of course she had to go out this morning. You may be familiar with my "trick" when she refuses to go out the back door because of rain; I just take her out the side door. She did not even fall for that today. Today she locked her legs at the side door, too, which required me to physically pick her up and set her in a puddle in the driveway. She shook it off and away we went.

Shopping does not stop for hurricanes, either. The teenager has to have a new pair of jeans to wear to work. We have to do it today because he has to wear them tomorrow (and he works most of today). Also the new NHL Xbox360 game is out today so... So guess who is going to be slogging around in the bad weather regardless of my best laid plans earlier in the week to just hunker down? Procrastination is a curse.

Before the Deluge

I got out a little bit this morning to run some errands before the deluge arrives. I had to get mom's car inspected and I wanted to go by the school and pick up my textbook so I can maybe get some work done in the next couple of days.

Gustav has made landfall and all eyes are on the levees in NOLA. So far, so good. The media is, of course, in panic mode and just seems to make things worse. We have 60,000 evacuees here in Shreveport and as I was getting around this morning it was hard not to notice their presence.

My first stop was the service station for the car inspection where I visited with a pizza delivery driver. He told me he delivered 140 pizzas to the CenturyTel last night. He said they made so many deliveries last night they ran out of pizza boxes and had to deliver some in plastic bags. From there I went to the grocery store (AGAIN) to pick up a handful of things and it was packed and slammed. Long lines, full parking lot, empty shelves. Super 1 ran out of bread last night (though I think they are restocked now). Batteries are long gone.

I went by the school to get my textbook and cutting through downtown Shreveport I was stopped at a light by a guy from New Orleans who wanted directions to the Civic Center which is now open as a shelter. They had been driving in heavy traffic all night; he was in a caravan with two other cars. He was the last car in the line so he was having trouble relaying my directions to the cars in front of him. I got in front of them, finally, leading them in the right direction.

At my school, the Bearkat football team was on the practice field. They aren't afraid of any stinkin' hurricane! Go Kats!

On the way back I drove by LSUS where there is a Red Cross shelter, long since full. Many of the evacuees were sitting alongside the soccer field watching a game (or a practice, I'm not sure). Others were walking around the campus perimeter.

Our weather right now is fine; very humid, slightly breezy. The rain bands are just now reaching Alexandria. They are still expecting 10 to 20 inches of rain here over the next couple of days as this storm stalls out.

Preparations

Update - Sun. p.m.: It's the calm before the storm I guess. Local weather dudes are predicting 35 mph sustained winds from mid-day tomorrow through Tuesday. Also predicting 10 to 20 inches of rain, the problem being that they expect the thing to stall out or slow down over East Texas. With Shreveport being on the NE quadrant that means lots of rain. All my preparations are done and I've prepped my mom as best I can. Steve is super busy as one might imagine. It's just a waiting game for now.

They are paying attention in NOLA it seems. Most are following the warnings and getting out. There are, as always, a few die hards who are refusing to leave.

As for our local situation, KTBS is predicting heavy rains and winds of 30 to 50 mph on Tuesday and heavy rain at least through Wednesday of up to one foot. So I've been making my little humble preparations. I went to the grocery store today to stock up on the necessary junk food (honestly, I am within walking distance to TWO grocery stores should anything drastic happen...) and bottled water. I'm not sure why I bought water - we've never lost water here. We almost always lose power though, so I stocked up on batteries. I got lucky really because I'd been hearing stories of how scarce batteries are already getting around town. At Super 1 I went straight to the battery section and it was wiped out. But when I got to the checkout line, there were a few remaining packages of D and C batteries hanging by the candy and chapstick displays. Score!

I also went to BestBuy and got a car charger for my cell phone, which I needed anyway. So if I lose power and can't blog, I will still be able to tweet on Twitter which posts to my blog (see it, on the right!). I am off now to secure my yard furniture; plastic lawn chairs and deck umbrellas don't hold up too well in 35 mph winds. I also need to move my mother's car to my house as I am on much higher ground and her driveway always floods. This is all so minor compared to those poor folks down south all along the coast. I'm am doing some serious praying for them. Imagine the nightmares this all brings back.

The panic in the media as this storm approaches is clear; I remember so clearly Janice Dean on FOX as Katrina approached. I knew it was serious when I listened to her. I'm getting that same feeling from her again although she is still hoping for a blessing for NO and a shift from Gustav to the west. Since Gov. Jindal cancelled school for the next 3 days, I hope to get some much needed work done and some MUCH needed housecleaning done. (Actually, I will probably do nothing but sit in front of the weather forecasts for the next 4 days, but I'll seriously try to make an effort.)

(Photo credit: NOLA.com Damien Weaver)

Incoming

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal just closed schools in 30 parishes (including mine) through Wednesday because of Hurricane Gustav. Our local weather is predicting sustained winds of 40 + for two days, downed trees, flooding, and possible tornadoes. Steve's police department is going to 12 hour shifts and our evac shelters are filling up. Local stores are running out of bottled water already as well as batteries. I have rounded up all the batteries in the house I can find and started gathering candles. I'm rolling up the patio umbrellas and putting up the outdoor cushions. We are charging up iPods, laptops and cell phones! They are predicting Gustav to be a category 5 by the morning as it goes over the open Gulf waters. So continue to keep La. in your thoughts and prayers, especially the coastal areas. Jindal says this one is as bad as it gets.

A Storm is Blowing

"We've taken in all the balcony furniture, all the pool furniture, the marquees, tied up what needs to be tied up, cut down any coconuts," said hotel manager Dan Szydlowski"

Folks all over Louisiana, and other places, are getting ready for a hurricane. Gustav is headed our way. Even though I'm in northwest Louisiana, we are expecting to be affected as well, not just with sheltering evacuees but by some nasty weather. Gustav is a Cat 3 right now which means as it continues its inland track, it will still likely create havoc with our local weather. In Shreveport, we've already received nursing home evacuees. Shelters for both humans and pets are in place and are already receiving people.


My thoughts and prayers are, of course, with all those south of me that are going to be and are currently being affected by Gustav, especially those Katrina survivors who must surely be having nightmare flashbacks right now.

(Photo credit: AP: Thunderstorms from Hurricane Gustav are seen off the coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico.)

Deja VooDoo

Is this picture making anyone else nervous? I wasn't in New Orleans during Katrina but Shreveport was bad enough. Steve was down there right after as part of the evacuation effort of the convention center with the police department and he brought back some rough stories and some photos. Nobody wants to revisit that! Maybe Gustav won't take the track they are predicting; we shall hope not! I'm concerned about the rebuilt levees and how much NOLA can take given that they have not yet fully recovered from Katrina. The emotional wounds may not EVER heal for many.

As a teacher in Bossier Parish, I can tell you that we absorbed a lot of students into our school after Katrina. I now know what shell-shock looks like. Many of those kids had such a haunted look in their eyes that it would break your heart. Some of them stayed on at our school and graduated; some moved back to NOLA, some moved and settled elsewhere.

So I'm saying a little prayer for New Orleans today.