New Orleans Living in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast, our hearts go out to people in North Carolina, suddenly confronting the horrors of hurricanes, even 500 miles from the coast, and folks in our sister state, Florida, facing a double whammy. Even as we blush at our recent luck when a Category 1 storm passed through the city as little more than hard rain and some trees down, none of us can keep from watching the maps as first Helene and now Milton come to land.
In Louisiana, ACORN’s affiliate, A Community Voice, has been campaigning in recent years with some success to convince the Department of Transportation to make better plans for contraflow to ease evacuations, but progress has been slow recently. Currently, if New Orleans had to evacuate to the east along the Gulf Coast, only Interstate 10 is available. The bridges along US-90 near the border with Mississippi are all going through various states of repair and won’t be finished for several more years, closing off that route. Going towards Baton Rouge, I-10 is still and option and US-61 is available, but how do you handle moving a million people out in various directions?
Contraflow means that all lanes in both directions are opened in one direction, out of the danger zone. This has been tried in the past, but rests on a bureaucratic and political decision heavily influenced more by business interests than safety and public health concerns. Florida has used contraflow in the past, but now both Texas and Florida have gone with what they call “evacuation lanes,” which means broadened shoulders to allow other lanes to be opened up for safe exit from storm areas. It’s unclear how well these are working. Radio reports on people fleeing the Tampa Bay area indicate some have been stuck for many additional hours in evacuation hell.
What all of us must know by now is that storms are getting bigger and more dangerous, partially because of climate change increasing carbon dioxide and heating coastal waters. FEMA continues to be underfunded from storm to storm and the price tag on storm damage continues to increase. Too many government authorities at every level continue to allow construction in low lying and storm prone areas and allow flood insurance to be voluntary. All of which is a prescription for more disasters in more places, including areas that have long been in the “it can’t happen here” category.
This is no longer a question of “what does it take to make people do something different?” No one can pretend that we don’t need a better plan that adapts to the current environment, not one that is based on what used to be. There’s a new “normal,” as people repeatedly said after Katrina in 2005, but we haven’t created – or demanded – our governments and others to do what is necessary to protect and secure our workplaces, homes, and lives.
It’s past time to make that demand, no matter where you live now or how safe you think you are.