Print this story | E-mail story | This story has 18 comments Add your own | iPod friendly
Miss-Lou officials happy with handling of Gustav
Published Sunday, September 7, 2008
NATCHEZ — With reminders of Gustav still littering the Miss-Lou, local officials have had a chance to reflect on the how the storm was handled.
The consensus? Job well done.
While the area’s leaders and first responders said there’s always room to improve in any disaster, they all said the response to Gustav was great.
Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton said he was pleased with the response.
“It was handled wonderfully, couldn’t have handled it any better,” he said. “Everybody was personable and wanting to know what they could do to help, you just couldn’t ask for more assistance.”
And in coordinating the well-handled effort both Middleton and president of the Adams County Board of Supervisors Henry Watts gave a great deal of credit to Stan Owens.
Owens is Adams County’s Emergency Management Director, and both men credited Owens for his ability to organize the city and the county before and after the storm.
“Stan did an excellent job of keeping us all informed through the whole thing,” Watts said.
Owens said the first step in readying the city and the county was to ready his own office by organizing things like tools, generators and volunteers.
“At the same time I began to contact the police department, fire department and Red Cross,” he said.
In the days just before Gustav, Owens conducted a series of meetings that incorporated multiple entities and allowed Owens to hear from community leaders.
Watts said he thought the meetings had a “calming effect” and let community leaders know what to expect.
Owens and several others credited those meetings with keeping things running smoothly during the storm.
But Owens still sees areas of improvement.
“Communication is always an issue,” he said.
Owens saw room for improvement in the allocation of resources.
“One of the main issues was that most of the state resources were aimed at the Mississippi Gulf Coast when it was very apparent Southwest Mississippi was a target. I understand the coast has to be prepared but we’re here, too.”
Owens said in the future he will also address delegation of responsibilities.
“We’re going to change some things,” he said.
Owens said he plans to use the National Incident Management System more in the future.
NIMS helps to organize tiers of management in the event of a disaster.
“If I would have used it a little more in-depth, the incident would have been a lot smoother,” he said.
Adams County Sheriff Ronny Brown said he also thought the community was ready for the storm but did see room for some improvement.
Brown said since the entire area lost power it was not possible to use local gas stations to refuel response vehicles.
Brown said he would urge station owners to purchase generators that would allow their pumps to be used when the power is out.
Brown said if it were not for the gas pump at the sheriff’s office that is powered by a generator, it would have been extremely difficult to provide gas to response vehicles.
And those unusable pumps were a symptom of a county-wide power outage that caught many off guard.
Entergy’s customer service manager Stephen Caruthers said the entire county lost power when the five transmission lines that bring power to the county all went down.
Even still, Caruthers said he was pleased with how well the county responded to the outage.
“I was so proud of the way the city and county and utilities pulled together,” Caruthers said.
Middleton and Watts also noted the hard work, and long hours, put in by the city and county work crews and law enforcement for helping the city to get back on its feet after the storm.
“They just did a tremendous job,” Watts said.
Across the River
Vidalia’s Mayor Hyram Copeland said he was very pleased with the response to Gustav in Vidalia.
“We’ve been through this several times and we know the procedure,” he said. “But you never know what might happen and you just have to be organized.”
Copeland said that organization is what restored 80 percent of Vidalia’s power within 24 hours of the initial outage.
But in general Copeland said he was happy with the way the situation was handled throughout the Miss-Lou.
“The entire area did a tremendous job under the circumstances,” he said.
Ferriday’s Mayor, Glenn McGlothin, said he too was pleased with the response to the storm in his area but did see a need for a remedy to the minor flooding across Ferriday.
“We are going to do an extensive program getting the culverts cleaned around town,” he said.
McGlothin also said he planned to file for grants for generators to power the sewage lift station which lost power during the storm.
Comments
Posted by jammin1 (anonymous) on September 7, 2008 at 1:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Yes the area handled Gustav very well, but don't think it is over. Ike is on his way too and I think he might be a Cat. 4 when he hits the Louisiana coast. With the ground already satuated from all the rain, it won't take much wind to pull more trees down.
Posted by babev1 (anonymous) on September 7, 2008 at 4:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I would like yo thank the people that work with Entergy for getting our lights back on as soon as possible. Great Job Guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by fire39212 (anonymous) on September 7, 2008 at 7:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)
we still are out of lights..So i am not so sure at how well they handled Gustav.....they want us prepared why weren't they prepared???
Posted by NatchezBell (anonymous) on September 7, 2008 at 10:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
All around town I saw togetherness & it's so neet. Thanks for all the tireless workers and crews of volunteers. You helped make our town safe from the storm. We could see you in action and that counts for alot.
Posted by NatchezBell (anonymous) on September 7, 2008 at 10:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
to (fire3912)...have you called the utilities co.?? After I called a couple of days ago, with in 20 minutes they were back on. Maybe you owe a bill or something. But by all means, call them. Good luck with the power & if you have the resorces...buy a generator; we did and thank God for it. IT helped us through the storm. We were able to run our refridgerator, microwave, fan & tv for movies. It helps with little ones & you have a steady supply of ice too.
Posted by NatchezEnema (anonymous) on September 7, 2008 at 10:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I think it was terrible. The mayor should have asked for the Naional Gaurd to come out. The govenor offered it! They should have been at the visitors center with ice and water the day before it hit, instead, they had someone else, what, 3 days later? Get the stuff here and if we don't need it send it to the gulf. I know personally some stores jacked the price of generators up 300-500$ The gas stations on the main throughways should have had generators for the gas pumps. I am also glad I did not get that internet phone the cable co. tried to sell me months ago. I had to go get a slow at&t wifi card to plug into my laptop because 8 days later I still do not have my cable internet. I will go to dsl next week. The cable co. has draggggged their feet. I had power (generator) satillite,water,cell phone, home phone, natural gas, just no cable internet.
Posted by lookingout (anonymous) on September 7, 2008 at 2:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)
natchezbell i can tell you that fire39212 does not owe a bill.....and yes she has called MANY times they say they are working in the area when in fact there was no trucks out there.......they did have a generator but it cost about $80 a day to run it and that gets expensive after 7 days dont you think
Posted by natchez500 (anonymous) on September 7, 2008 at 3:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
things work great when everyone works together i am so glad the sheriff and police worked with each other and got the job done for us all thanks mike and ronny for your leadership and stan owens also
Posted by 3on23 (anonymous) on September 7, 2008 at 5:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yep Enema they should have been here BEFORE they knew exactly where Gustav was going to hit. Sorry the crystal ball was out for repair. Considering the extent of damage that the county suffered I think the response time was pretty good where the utility companies are concerned. I just got my cable internet back today at my home and my power was restored Thursday night. Yes you should be sooo mad at the cable company for not getting their lines fixed before the power crews repaired the power lines. There is an order to the way things have to be done for those worker's safety. A little patience and a whole lot of gratitude for these workers and their familes is what is due.
Posted by sbearden12 (anonymous) on September 7, 2008 at 7:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The first responders on the ground get my admiration because they are the heroes. But with all the back-patting and pretty words on the front page--that's as far as I could go--I would like to let them know that we still do not have power(Sun evening) and there are lines down everywhere in District 1. Haley Barbour should have called for more linemen from other states because the job is undone! Or would it be my supervisor? All those buildings they rushed to put back on line? Half were closed on Sat and many more were closed today.
If you power up the regular customers, they will take care of themselves and they will take care of their families, the elderly, disabled and less fortunate at the same time. Power to the (household) people!
PS: How am I supposed to prepare for Ike with a battery-operated radio?
Posted by rose18 (anonymous) on September 7, 2008 at 11:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
THANKS TO THE LIGHTS COMPANYS THAT HELPED IN CONCORDIA PARISH. I LOST LIGHTS FOR 23HRS THAT WAS NOT BAD BUT I HATED IT WE ARE ALL SO SPOILED TO EVERTHING.
Posted by fire39212 (anonymous) on September 8, 2008 at 2:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)
NatchezBell Don't you think i have called....No i do not owe a bill...We have a generators...But, Thank you for the information of what i should do to get it back on....You should go to work for the lights company...
Finally got lights yesterday about 11....
Posted by fuzzmonkey (anonymous) on September 8, 2008 at 7:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
NatchezEnema, I feel they did a good job overall. I was without power for the better part of four days. The National Gaurd really wasn't needed. I don't think giving away ice and water the day before is the job of the government, Why didn't you buy or make ice before the storm hit. We knew about at least a week in advance. There were many people in far worse shape than you and you're worried about internet and free water and ice. I'm sure there was more concern just to get the power back on.
Posted by mike8427 (anonymous) on September 8, 2008 at 8:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't think local law enforcement did a good job at all. The major intersections in town were an accident waiting to happen. I was completely lost as to why the NPD or ADSO didn't have officers working the intersections, at least during peak traffic. I had to cross them a few times and it was extremely dangerous.
The radio station was advising drivers to treat them like stop sign intersections, but only about half the driver did this. Once I saw a NPD car approaching and I was hoping he would assist, but he just drove through and didn't stop either. Maybe part of the problem was the fuel issue above, but you don't need fuel to post a man to direct traffic.
I am not sure what others experienced, but I rarely saw law enforcement working the streets and I think it was needed.
Posted by andy (anonymous) on September 8, 2008 at 11:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
i know that the sheriff requested mhp and mdot to help with traffic around the by-pass so the police and sheriff could answered calls. yes i do think traffic was the major problem and maybe that can be addressed in another time, but for right now i also think law enforcement did a good job and traffic maybe could have been handled better even with just stop signs at the major intersetions so one car could go at a time. remember the by-pass belongs to the mdot and yes they should have had the people here to direct traffic and we all know they have the equipment and signs to help out all in all i am going to do better and not put blame , next time maybe we will be as important to our state officals than the coast and jackson we are last when it comes to resources and we all know it
Posted by mike8427 (anonymous) on September 8, 2008 at 12:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
True Andy, I guess I should of said law enforcement, not just local. But I did see one intersection @ the old weigh station where local police were putting stop signs out. I actually think that the locals are responsible for traffic enforcement, but I could be wrong.
Posted by BOBCAT1974 (anonymous) on September 8, 2008 at 12:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I hope everyone is getting ready for the next one.Don't wait at the last minute to do so.And most of all help each other out.You're family,friends and yes you're community.Even those you may not like.
Posted by natchez500 (anonymous) on September 8, 2008 at 5:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
does anyone know about the drive by shooting today someone was hit and i saw the car on a wrecker it had bullet holes in it taken to police dept what's happening we have got to get guns out of these teenagers hands i heard the one shot was out on bond for two more shooting this year come on ronnie harper and al johnson we need some help police and sheriff cannot do it all they need your help
Post a comment (Terms of Use Policy)
(Requires free registration.)