State & Region News

In the last year, a lifetime of learning and information has passed between the leaders in those three cities as officials dissect how to do a better job preparing for and weathering the aftermath of the next natural disaster.

“The big lesson is pre-positioning supplies,” said Gov. Bob Riley. “We’ve learned a lot. We went through four hurricanes in 14 months. We learned we can’t depend on something that’s not pre-positioned in a timely manner.”

Since Katrina, federal officials have moved to stockpile supplies in at-risk counties, hoping not to repeat scenes from the Louisiana Superdome last year.

State officials say Alabama reacted far better than Louisiana to the storm, partly because the state had experience with Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and partly because Louisiana and Mississippi got the worst of Katrina. More than 1,400 people were killed in the storm in Louisiana; a little over 230 were killed in Mississippi, while 24 Alabamians died as a direct or indirect result of the hurricane.

Hurricane damage estimates for the region can range anywhere from $81 billion to $125 billion; according to the Boston Globe, the Bush Administration has sought $105 billion for recovery efforts, which would make it the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has given $75 million in state-administered grants to be distributed for infrastructure repairs. In addition, some $127 million has gone directly from FEMA to Alabama residents.

State and local officials say their plans for Katrina worked the plans as they were. They give credit to Riley for strong leadership, and note that mutual aid agreements between emergency responders helped ensure quick responses to hurricane-affected areas in the southern Alabama.

Still, there were some miscommunications. Despite the outpouring of community spirit, McClellan’s Starships dormitory closed on Oct. 22 with fewer than six people inside. Many hurricane victims opted to stay at the hotel-like Noble Training Center down the road, basically wasting the city and federal efforts to find temporary housing for hundreds of hurricane victims believed to be on the way to Anniston. Other victims remained in hotels until they could find permanent housing, or return home.

But if the Starships were vacant, there was a widespread – and largely unexpected – need for long-term housing statewide.

“I don’t think we had in our wildest imagination anticipated we would have the tens of thousands of people from other states choosing to come to Alabama from the storm,” said Jim Walker, director of the Alabama Department of Homeland Security. “I think that was rather eye-opening for us. We did develop a plan to try to be as good neighbors and as good Americans as possible.”

More than 9,200 Louisianans sought shelter in Alabama, according to the Louisiana Recovery Authority. Alabama could handle short-term housing, but many victims had to stay for weeks or months.

Bruce Baughman, director of state Emergency Management Agency, said prior emergency housing plans generally called on the construction of temporary housing for more typical disasters like tornadoes. Katrina was unusual, he said, in that victims of the disaster could not go back to their homes or neighborhoods.

Since the hurricane, the state has made two-year colleges available for long-term living in case of disaster. The system could serve around 21,000 people, he said.

“I don’t know that anybody short of those planning for a southern California earthquake anticipated it,” he said. “If they anticipated it, there was no systematic planning to deal with it.”

FEMA has “pre-staged” supplies like ice and meals-ready-to-eat in Baldwin County in case of a major disaster.

Walker and Baughman, however, say they want the federal government to commit to reimbursing states for expenses incurred during a state of emergency, even if no disaster takes place. For example, if a hurricane appeared headed to Mobile, the governor could declare a state of emergency 96 hours before landfall, begin evacuations and call up the National Guard, precautionary measures that can be costly. The hurricane could easily veer off the path, but Walker argues the state should not be “punished” for not taking chances.

“You’ve got to give us that window,” Walker said. “You have to give the governor that opportunity to prepare the state and make decisions.

“It’s an expensive call to mobilize the National Guard. It could veer off to another state, but in the meantime, that’s 10, 15 or 20 million dollars.”