Today's Headlines / Fri, Sept. 05, 2008
News Alert: Entergy map shows when EBR customers should get power restored
Entergy has released a map that shows when certain sections of East Baton Rouge should get their power back. Most parts of the parish should have electricity within the next six days, but the hardest hit neighborhoods, such as Broadmoor, East Sherwood Forest, Pollard Estates and Highland Lakes, won't come back for another two to three weeks. As of this afternoon, 31% of customers in East Baton Rouge now have power, along with 33% of Ascension customers, 40% in Livingston and 38% in West Baton Rouge. To see the map, click here. The utility company is also opening customer information to take care of people who have lost power; by Monday, centers should be open on Essen Lane, Government Street, Beechwood Street, Church Street in Zachary, Burnside Avenue in Gonzales and Donaldsonville Town Hall. For a full list of centers, click here .
News Alert: UPDATE: Gustav's price tag could reach $19 billion
So how much is Hurricane Gustav going to cost us? Very preliminary estimates from Louisiana Economic Development put the tab at anywhere between $7 billion and $15 billion in property damage throughout Louisiana - excluding the Gulf - and $2 billion to $4 billion in lost economic activity before and after the storm made landfall. But LED Secretary Stephen Moret said late Thursday that comprehensive economic impact studies generally take several months, and these will most certainly be updated in the coming weeks. He says most of the damage was to residential properties, followed by commercial structures, property and inventory. He put the dollar amount for the Baton Rouge area at hundreds of millions. "Hurricane Katrina had an impact roughly of a quarter of a billion dollars in damages to residential properties," he says. "Our current expectation is that the impact of Gustav will be more than that." (This story has been updated since the morning) - Penny Brown
News Alert: EBR schools closed through Sept. 12
All East Baton Rouge Parish public schools will remain closed through Sept. 12 and some parish schools will re-open Sept. 15. Officials will release a list of which schools will re-open early in the middle of next week. "We have no idea how many schools will re-open that Monday because it really depends on which schools have power," says Chris Trahan, a spokesman for the school system. Seventeen out of the 89 parish school sites have full or partial power, says Trahan, up from nine on Thursday. All Catholic schools in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, except for four schools in Tangipahoa Parish, will remain closed Monday and Tuesday. The diocese will release an update Tuesday on future openings.
EBR curfew pushed back to 10 p.m.
The curfew in East Baton Rouge Parish has been pushed back to begin at 10 p.m., effective today, officials said at this morning’s daily briefing.
Twenty-seven people were arrested for curfew violations last night.
There was one homicide last night; details will be announced later today. In other news:
-- The Comite River has crested and is falling. The Amite River crested early this morning, while Bayou Manchac is expected to crest later today. Flooding is possible today in low-lying areas of East Baton Rouge, Ascension and Livingston parishes.
-- Garbage and debris collection by DPW began yesterday in East Baton Rouge Parish. The city-parish expects to have a 30-day debris-removal contract in place soon.
-- Ninety-seven traffic lights are now working in the parish.
-- ExxonMobil expects to have its refinery fully up and running by Sunday or Monday. There is no gasoline shortage.
-- Three shelters remain open in East Baton Rouge: at the BREC buildings on Gus Young and South Flannery at Goodwood, and at Bethany Ministries on Plank Road in Baker. Also, Healing Place Church on Highland Road has announced they will be giving out meals, water and tarps daily from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
-- Another briefing is scheduled for 3 p.m., primarily to discuss the electricity situation.
Businesses re-opening after Gustav
More and more Capital Area businesses are coming back after Hurricane Gustav blew through Baton Rouge and caused massive blackouts. For an updated list of all reopenings and other hurricane-related information, click here. If you have information about a business re-opening, contact tboone@businessreport.com
General Mid City gets FEMA medical team
FEMA is setting up a Disaster Medical Assistance Team at Baton Rouge General's Mid City campus to help ease the strain on the hospital's overburdened emergency department. Baton Rouge General has been busy since Earl K. Long Medical Center and Lane Regional Medical Center were shut down by Gustav. The FEMA team is being set up directly across from the Mid City emergency entrance and should be operational by early this afternoon. The team will handle minor but urgent injuries that don't require an ER. Hospital spokeswoman Teri McNorton says the hospital's ER is seeing a steady increase in visits as people begin to venture out and hurt themselves cleaning up, tripping over debris, using chain saws or suffering carbon monoxide poisoning from improperly used generators. --Steve Clark
Tropical Storm Hanna set to soak East Coast, Ike coming
Beach vacationers in the Carolinas prepared to pack up and head inland Friday as Tropical Storm Hanna cruised steadily toward the coast, while others decided to ride out the fast-moving storm that had only a slight chance to become a small hurricane before crashing ashore overnight. The storm will likely wash out the weekend from the Carolinas to Maine. Tropical storm watches or warnings ran from Georgia to areas just south of New York City, and included all of Chesapeake Bay and the Washington, D.C., area. The latest forecast called on Hanna to make landfall on the northern coast of South Carolina around 2 a.m. Saturday before marching quickly up the Atlantic seaboard and pushing into New England by early Sunday morning. Hanna was expected to dump several inches of rain on the coastal areas of the Carolinas through central Virginia, Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania. The bigger worry was the ferocious-looking Hurricane Ike, which weakened to a Category 3 storm early Friday as it headed toward the Bahamas and Florida. And with power outages and problems from Hurricane Gustav lingering in Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and relief groups found themselves juggling three storms. For the latest information on the path of Hanna and Ike, visit the National Hurricane Center's Web site here.
Section of I-10 to close at noon today
A section of Interstate 10 has been reopened after it was closed to allow Entergy crews to repair a main transmission line. The section between Siegen Lane and Highland Road was closed for several hours, beginning at noon. The workers had to fix a section of line that crossed over the highway and provided power to three substations.
Other road closures include:
-- La. 37 at the Comite River.
-- La. 1 along False River.
-- La. 44 from the Sunshine Bridge to Covent.
-- La. 415 at La. 76.
U.S. 190 at the old Mississippi River Bridge is now open.
Hanna won't affect power restoration
So shortly after Hurricane Gustav turned off the lights in much of the state, tired Louisianans are worried about what happens if Tropical Storm Hanna does the same to Florida. No worries on this one or with any other storms, says Entergy spokesman Philip Allison. Though the company's 14,000 workers helping to restore power in the state include line workers from Florida, Allison says if any of them are called back they’ll be replaced by other employees. Allison couldn’t specify how many workers are from other power companies; he did say they’re from 26 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. -- Anna Thibodeaux
Election shift won't affect B.R. races
The decision to postpone Saturday's Congressional primaries won't affect the Oct. 4 elections for Baton Rouge mayor-president and Metro Council. Officials decided to hold off on the Democratic and Republican primaries in several districts because of the widespread power outages caused by Gustav. The move may mean the race to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery and U.S. Rep. William Jefferson's re-election bid won't be decided until Dec. 6.
Gustav stories: Local restaurant owner shows ingenuity
Straight from the storm front in the Capital City comes a story about how ingenuity and some batteries can save the day. Just one day after Hurricane Gustav ripped through the state on Monday, Jim Urdiales, owner of Mestizo restaurant and director of the Louisiana Restaurant Association, returned to his dark restaurant, grabbed a flashlight and fired up the grill. Aided by five workers, he cooked up the contents of the refrigerator and turned it into lunches until the fridge was bare. On Wednesday, they tackled the freezer until they were sold out of lunches. “You do what you gotta do,” he says. “I had a cooler full of food at a good temp, so we grilled it into $5 to-go boxes." They sold 200 meals the first day and 150 meals the second day. “I don’t know if you could ever really prepare for a hurricane this large. The people of Baton Rouge are resilient and everybody I know was doing what they could, so I broke out my flashlight and people from all over Louisiana came. They were just glad to get a good meal besides a sandwich.” By Thursday, the power was back and Urdiales says they officially reopened with a limited menu. “I will never take my restaurant for granted again. I missed my restaurant,” he says.
Poll: When do you expect power to return?
Poll: When do you think you'll get your electricity back?
B.R native under a black cloud
The Washington Post has a profile of Cary Koch, a wide receiver at Virginia, who played football at Dunham. Koch has been a dependable player for the Cavaliers, but he's been dogged by bad weather. He originally signed to play at Tulane, but he left the school after Hurricane Katrina. Then his family evacuated to Charlottesville to get away from Hurricane Gustav. Now, they're looking at dealing with Tropical Storm Hanna. "I feel like hurricanes are just chasing me," Koch says. Read the story here.
News roundup: Jobless rate jumps to five-year high... DirectTV now offering local channels in HD...Gustav causes drop in Lotto ticket sales
Looking for work: The nation's unemployment rate zoomed to a five-year high of 6.1% in August as employers slashed 84,000 jobs, dramatic proof of the mounting damage a deeply troubled economy is inflicting on workers and businesses alike. The Labor Department's report, released Friday, showed the increasing toll the housing, credit and financial crises are taking on the economy. With the employment situation deteriorating, there's growing worry that consumers will recoil, throwing the economy into a tailspin later this year or early next year ... Too bad I don't have power: DirectTV is now offering high-definition versions of four local channels to Baton Rouge customers. The satellite service is now broadcasting HD versions of WAFB, WBRZ, WGMB and WVLA....Who wants to be a winner? Louisiana Lotto ticket sales were down by about two-thirds from the weekend through Wednesday, when many Hurricane Gustav evacuees started returning to their south Louisiana homes. Though the exact number of sales was not immediately available, Louisiana Lottery Corp. spokeswoman Kimberly Chopin says the number of retailers was down by hundreds, largely in the more populous south Louisiana, which took the brunt of Gustav. Of the roughly 2,800 retail outlets across Louisiana that sell lottery tickets, almost 800 either did not have their machines turned on or did not have the services required to operate them.
No LaPolitics because of Gustav
LaPolitics by John Maginnis is not being published this week because of the havoc caused by Hurricane Gustav.
