You Plan for the Worst and Hope for the Best

By Roy Dupuy, Landscape Architect Chief
Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development

At least, that's how the saying goes. When hurricanes threaten the Gulf States, you make your plans. If the storm presents a danger, you gather your supplies, family, and pets and evacuate to a location out of the projected path and expect to return the next day or so. If you plan to "ride it out," you gather food, water, batteries, gas for the car and generator and wait and hope that the only work afterwards is picking up some limbs in the yard. Besides, the evacuation routes will be clogged for hours. The storms have always turned at the last minute, and there is no reason to expect any difference this time.

Then the news programs report intensification of the storm. Urgency is heard in the officials' voices. The rain starts and the wind speed forces the closing of the elevated bridge structures providing evacuation routes to safety. You've waited too late to evacuate. The rain gets heavier and beats against the house in waves. Roofing and other debris fly past the window. The neighbor's tree is blown over, and you have to light candles because the power is off. Water starts to rise in the streets.

You hoped for the best, but it's worse than what you planned for.

Hurricane Katrina directly hit southeast Louisiana on Aug. 29, and Hurricane Rita attacked the southwestern part of the state on Sept. 24. Immediately following these storms of historic proportions, many people in the affected areas faced no electricity, no water and broken gas mains spewing flames through the floodwaters. Telephones weren't working, and the cell towers were gone. Then as radio batteries died, communication with the outside world was cut off. Entire neighborhoods were demolished. Downed trees–sometimes even houses that had been pushed into the roadway in the worst-hit areas–obscured the end of the block. Trees and telephone poles are leaning or snapped, and debris covers the roadways. Before the energy crews can repair the damage and restore power, restart the flooded water pumps, repair the gas mains and telephone service, the roads have to be cleared.

In the wake of Katrina and Rita, the damage to Louisiana's transportation infrastructure and roadside was extensive. As the winds were dying down, dedicated Louisiana DOTD employees in the affected districts first had to use chainsaws to cut their way to the state roads, then to their units. Every road was blocked by downed trees, construction debris or masses of marsh grass, depending on your proximity to the coast. District employees in these areas worked in the blistering September heat from sunrise to sunset. Many had severely damaged homes, some had total losses, and yet they showed up every day to work. That is when you realize what "teamwork" and "family" really mean.

FEMA trailers housed employees and families at Bridge City District.

The employees were not alone in their districts. They had DOTD "family" all across the state who volunteered to assist. Teams from other districts throughout the state showed up to help. They arrived in convoys with personnel, equipment, fuel, ice, water and food. Since no hotel rooms were available, employees bunked in offices. So many districts made offers to send people that some of the help had to be refused because there was simply no more room to house them. Together, within five days of Katrina's landfall, all roads in District 62 (the Hammond area) were cleared and road washouts repaired.

District 2, encompassing the New Orleans area, had 500 employees prior to Katrina, but is down to 459 today–mainly because of housing issues. To assist employees with housing, DOTD requested assistance from FEMA in constructing a trailer village in the parking lot at the district headquarters in Bridge City Thirty employees and their families moved in Jan. 6.

Districts 2 and 62 had a total of 1,055 employees prior to Katrina. On Sept. 12, 474 were not at work; of this number 214 were unaccounted for. By Sept. 30, 749 were back at work; 276 had contacted us and were unable to return; and 30 had not contacted the agency.

After Rita hit District 7 (the Lake Charles area in the southwest area of the state), the Hammond district was the first to offer assistance even though personnel were still reeling from Katrina. Everyone was willing to do whatever was necessary to put our roads and the lives of our people back together. Employees manned phones to answer questions from the public: Could they come home, what about their animals they left, is I-10 open, did a certain neighbor survive?

When there was no place to buy food, employees emptied their freezers and cooked that food for the workers. They traveled outside the district to get food and supplies; they waited in long lines at Sam's and Wal-Mart; they made deals with food distributors; some came in at 4 a.m. to cook breakfast; make and distribute lunches; and prepare and cook the evening dinner meal. Others stayed late to clean up afterward.

More than 300 employees at District 62 were fed at each meal during the days following Katrina. Charts were posted, schedules made and assignments given. Makeshift showers were installed. Cots were placed in every corner of the building, although most slept little. Repair crews, cleanup crews, inspectors and dump-site monitors were working 12- and 14-hour days (and many continue to do so).

Six feet deep marsh hay covered many highways.

We were prepared for related-storm damage, but not to this extent. We didn't have the specialized equipment with "thumbs" and "claws" to remove massive amounts of trees blocking the roadways. In those, we let contracts while other districts used their own forces.

To date, 32 million cubic yards of debris has been collected in the state and placed at 80 different debris sites; 61 sites are for vegetation and 19 are landfills for construction debris. DOTD collected 3.2 million cubic yards, or 10 percent of the total, at a cost of $112.6 million. 32 million cubic yards of debris is enough to fill a football field, including the end zones, to a height of 2.84 miles.

Surveys of roadside vegetation and the hurricanes' impact have yet to be fully realized as debris continues to accumulate. Where debris was pushed to the roadside, earth was moved along with the process. Ditches now have to be reclaimed. Roadsides where trees were allowed to encroach to reduce mowing costs will have to be reassessed to prevent similar post-storm road-closing conditions.

Meanwhile, normal upkeep such as litter control and mowing is suspended. Inmates evacuated prior to the storms are crowding remaining facilities, upsetting the prisoner-to-guard ratio. With a few exceptions, inmate litter crews have ceased operations. Storm-related budget adjustments may affect the number of mowing and litter cycles on all roads as well as contracted mowing and in-house herbicide applications. No budget exists to replace the trees and vegetation lost on the roadside. Meanwhile, during the confusion, vegetation has been removed without permit by unknown individuals–possibly to improve business visibility.

Devastation, chaos, enthusiasm, dedication, endurance, organization, compassion, kindness, hope, gratitude and family are words that employees used to describe this past five months. The recovery task is daunting and will take years to complete. Meanwhile, the next hurricane season (as of Feb. 3) is only 117 days away. We'll hope for the best. We know how to plan for the worst.