Jindal briefed on parish recovery

Gov. Bobby Jindal visited Ascension Parish Saturday, where he received updates on the parish’s recovery in the wake of Hurricane Gustav’s destructive tear through the state last week.

Arriving via helicopter at the Parish Courthouse East in Gonzales, Jindal and members of his cabinet – Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, State Police Col. Mike Edmonston, Louisiana National Guard Gen. Bennett Landreneau and others – heard from municipal and local officials on current conditions in the parish, while telling the officials that he is committed to bringing Ascension the assistance it needs both at the state and federal levels.

After being briefed by Parish President Tommy Martinez and parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Director Rick Webre, Jindal sat down with local officials to discuss the state’s efforts and to hear their concerns.

The number one obstacle in the state’s relief effort is getting critical services back up and running, Jindal said. Another obstacle the state and parish faced was the slow delivery of relief supplies such as ice, water, meals ready to eat (MREs) and tarps for residents.

Jindal said after the meeting that he felt the rest of the country did not grasp how devastating of a storm Gustav was to Louisiana, and that educating the country on the magnitude of this event was crucial.

“After everything that happened with Katrina in New Orleans, people all over the countries watched those levees and saw that they didn’t breach, so they thought it wasn’t a serious storm. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. This storm caused more damage to a wider part of our state than any storm I can remember. We need to educate people about what we’re going through here so they can have a better understanding of our situation and realize that we need assistance.”

The governor also said that this storm’s widespread power outages show that power lines across the state need to be strengthened to withstand stronger winds.

“We need to strengthen them so they’re not so vulnerable,” Jindal said. “We know there will be future storm events. We don’t want a situation again where so many of our communities lose power all at once. We can understand temporary power outages, but we need to avoid long-term outages like what some areas of the state are seeing right now.”

Many things did go well during preparations for this storm, the governor said. He cited the quickness of the contra-flow traffic plan to evacuate coastal parishes and having back-up plans in place in case federal government entities do not come through.

Martinez said that he felt the government entities “worked well together in such a trying situation,”but asked Jindal to push FEMA to send much needed disaster relief supplies for residents.

Jindal told Martinez that he spoke to FEMA Secretary David Paulison prior to Saturday’s meeting and said he would “lean hard on FEMA” to make sure the right amount of required supplies were delivered not only to Ascension, but to all parishes in the state affected by Gustav.

“I was speaking to an official who told me that the National Guard was doing too good of a job in distributing these items,” Jindal said. “That’s ridiculous to even say. The guardsmen are doing an outstanding job, but we need to have supplies for our residents, bottom line.”

Jindal thanked the local faith-based community for their volunteer efforts to assist after the storm.

Donaldsonville Mayor Leroy Sullivan told Jindal the situation in his city was “disastrous,” adding that relief supplies were coming slow to the city’s pick-up point at the Lemann Memorial Center and that residents were frustrated.

“It seems like FEMA can’t get it right,” Sullivan said.

Jindal assured Sullivan that he would have enough supplies for city residents, stating that “when we have them, I promise you will have them.”

State Rep. M.J. “Mert” Smiley Jr., who assisted Jindal during the recent legislative session, applauded Jindal’s handling of the crisis, adding that the governor “exuded confidence” during his televised press briefings before and after the storm.

Sullivan also told the governor that his executive assistant, Lincoln Moore, died Friday after suffering a stroke Wednesday. Sullivan said Moore, 59, suffered the stroke while helping in hurricane relief efforts. Moore was not able to receive necessary medical care in time, Sullivan said.

The mayor said he felt situations such as Moore’s could have been prevented with better communication with health care officials and first responders.

Jindal told the Weekly Citizen after the meeting that he felt the rest of the country did not grasp how devastating of a storm Gustav was to Louisiana, and that educating the country on the magnitude of this event was crucial.

“After everything that happened with Katrina in New Orleans, people all over the countries watched those levees and saw that they didn’t breach, so they thought it wasn’t a serious storm. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. This storm caused more damage to a wider part of our state than any storm I can remember. We need to educate people about what we’re going through here so they can have a better understanding of our situation and realize that we need assistance.”

The governor also said that this storm’s widespread power outages show that power lines across the state need to be strengthened to withstand stronger winds.

“We need to strengthen them so they’re not so vulnerable,” Jindal said. “We know there will be future storm events. We don’t want a situation again where so many of our communities lose power all at once. We can understand temporary power outages, but we need to avoid long-term outages like what some areas of the state are seeing right now.”

Many things did go well during preparations for this storm, the governor said. He cited the quickness of the contra-flow traffic plan to evacuate coastal parishes and having back-up plans in place in case federal government entities do not come through.Jindal also thanked the parish officials for their work before, during and after the storm.

“The reason we didn’t have all the fatalities and the setbacks we could have had with this storm is that everyone worked so well together,” Jindal said. “This was the largest evacuation in both the state’s and the country’s histories. That all happened because everyone worked together.

Jindal also said that he felt Ascension Parish’s citizens and governing officials showed “a resilient spirit” in the face of Hurricane Gustav.

“What you have in this parish are residents and government officials who prepared themselves and are willing to help one another when in need,” he said. “That is the type of attitude you need to come out of a disaster such as this.”