For about five hours in the late morning and early afternoon on Sept. 1, 2008, near-record wind gusts from Hurricane Gustav felled trees, knocked down fences, turned shingles into projectiles and snapped power lines across the Capital Region.
Like many Baton Rougeans, fallen trees demolished a significant portion of Stafford Kendall’s Mid City home. But after $130,000 worth of damage, one dedicated contractor and seven months in an apartment with her husband and children, Kendall finally moved back into her home.
“The main thing Gustav taught me was a genuine sense of compassion,” she says. “I can recognize the issues people had after Katrina and Rita because we went through the exact same thing—except we had the necessary resources, great insurance and friends and family to rely on.”
Gustav made landfall on Labor Day morning near Cocodrie in Terrebonne Parish as a Category 2 hurricane, with 110 mph winds. The Capital Region had largely escaped unscathed in 2005, when Katrina affected southeast Louisiana and Rita affected southwest Louisiana.
But when Gustav made a slight jog to the north after landfall, it brought conditions not seen in the region since Hurricane Betsy in 1965. Wind gusts reached 91 mph, one shy of Betsy’s record. Every one of DEMCO’s more than 95,000 members in seven parishes lost power, and nearly 829,000 Entergy customers statewide went dark.
So what lessons were learned from Gustav—especially in light of a quiet 2009 season that heated up quickly earlier this month with Ana moving toward the Gulf of Mexico, Bill churning in the Atlantic Ocean and Claudette making landfall in the Florida Panhandle?
For one, Mayor Kip Holden says better communication with the state in clearing roadways and removing debris is vital to recovery.
“If the state is responsible for a certain highway, they should take immediate action to make sure roads are clear so we can take care of our roads in our jurisdiction,” he says. “We need to make sure we can get these roadways open as quickly as possible because this is the capital city.”
In Gustav’s immediate aftermath, major intersections were policed until utility companies could restore services—a job that took several weeks and was slowed when Hurricane Ike made landfall near Galveston, Texas, just 12 days later. Holden plans to address part of the problem in the November bond issue, which designates $47 million for traffic light synchronization and the possibility of inclusion of backup solar- and battery-powered units at some locations.
Holden and JoAnne Moreau, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness, have focused much of their energy on educating the public on hurricane preparations. Earlier this month, MOSHEP launched Red Stick Ready, a half-hour weekly television program designed to help the public prepare for the next Gustav.
“I don’t believe that the public, both individuals and businesses, were prepared for the extended lengths of time we were without power after Gustav,” Moreau says. “It’s something that really needs to be addressed. The public needs to be aware it has an opportunity to prepare for all disasters—not just hurricanes.”
MOSHEP also upgraded the technology in the emergency operations center in order to map out shelters, hospitals, nursing homes and sites without power to visually coordinate relief efforts. The building off Harding Boulevard, just south of Metro Airport, serves as a nucleus for relief efforts backed up by several systems and generators that keep the power on
“We always plan for Murphy’s Law,” Moreau says. “We always look to improve on what we’ve done before. We’ve trained more people, we’ve looked at our processes and I definitely think we are ready for this hurricane season.”
Let there be light
Gustav decimated hundreds of transmission lines and thousands of poles, leaving nearly 1.4 million people in the dark at its peak. Bucket trucks carrying an army of utility workers—many of whom came from out of state—were common as the lights slowly came back on—in some cases to be knocked out again by Ike.
The damage total—and the resources needed to restore power—is staggering. Gustav shut down 259 Entergy substations and took out 206 lines. The company says power was completely restored in 19 days thanks to the efforts of 14,900 workers from 27 states and Canada—many of whom were stationed at tent cities in front of the Mall of Louisiana and the former Tinseltown theater in Marketplace Siegen Lane. More than 2,500 workers helped DEMCO completely restore power in 13 days.
“We never want to have another 100% outage ever again,” DEMCO spokesman David Latona says. “I think that 95,000 homes in 13 days is pretty impressive, but we’re always looking for ways to be better at what we do.”
Entergy communications specialist Philip Allison says the company began evaluating the post-storm response immediately after restoring power to the entire system. Improvements made this year to the company’s monitoring system track how the power flows over lines and through substations, which helps pinpoint areas for restoration.
Allison says Entergy also focused on damage assessment methods, including the utilization of helicopters to view damage in more remote areas.
“We want to get out and assess the damage as soon as it is safe to do so,” he says. “Damage assessment is important because we want to make sure we are sending the right number of crews and the right resources to the right areas.”
Most of the physical improvements to DEMCO’s system have taken place through a four-year, $150 million comprehensive project begun before Gustav, Latona says. The company has a new Prairieville substation and has increased the size of transformers along with other upgrades in several of its 34 substations.
“The heat wave in July was a great test for our system,” he says. “Everything worked according to plan, and we feel that we are absolutely ready for this hurricane season.”
Back in business
Object 9, a marketing and strategy firm with offices in Baton Rouge, is pitching a Hurricane Preparedness Communications Plan to some of its clients. Shelly Dupre, a company spokeswoman, says the firm tries to “develop a complete, customized communications plan that spells out who to contact both before and after a hurricane.”
Richard Byrd, the business unit manager with Teledyn Odom Hydrographic, an eco-sounder and related equipment company, says his company already has emergency operations plans—but this takes it a step further to work out all the what-ifs.
“It really basically saves a lot of time because they’ve already thought out a bunch of different scenarios,” Byrd says. And minimizing the time his employees spend in board meetings discussing who will call whom during a storm is well worth the cost.
Kendall, who owns design and Web development firm Covalent Logic, evacuated her staff before the storm in anticipation of a long-term power outage, ceding day-to-day control to business partner Brian Murphy while she worked at the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness after the storm.
Now, Kendall says, she has multiple ways of contacting employees in case of a storm and recommends evacuating if possible.
“Our business is completely dependant on power, Internet and phone,” she says. “Once everyone was evacuated, they were able to take care of clients by phone and laptop even though they weren’t in the area.”
Building an industry
Before Gustav, the state’s insurance industry was in the fragile process of rebuilding after a massive pullout following Katrina and Rita. Policyholders had received $20 billion in combined payouts from the storms, and the state-run Louisiana Citizens Insurance Property Corporation was trying to unload some of its 175,000 policies into the private market. A $100 million fund established to lure private companies back to the state had received a lukewarm reception.
Of the 51,000 claims filed with Citizens, 95% have been closed, CEO John Wortman says. In addition, the company has reduced its number of policies to pre-Katrina levels and its market share from 12% to 8%.
“Obviously we’re hoping the wind doesn’t blow,” he says. “Gustav had a significant effect—$200 million worth—but we don’t need another assessment. That’s a good thing.”
Gustav ranks No. 20 on the National Hurricane Center’s list of costliest hurricanes, with $3.8 billion in damage. To compare, Katrina ranks No. 1 at $81 billion, Andrew No. 2 at $35 billion, Ike No. 4 at $18 billion, Rita No. 7 at $10 billion and Betsy No. 11 at $8.5 billion.
For Kendall, filing her claim with State Farm was relatively easy. Her advice: Add a replacement value clause, which requires an insurance company to pay the value of replacing storm damage rather than the cash value of the home, to your policy.
For example, if there is damage to the roof of a 15-year-old house, an insurance company only pays the actual cash value of a 15-year-old roof. With a replacement value policy, the insurance company pays the cost to replace the roof regardless of its age. One year after Gustav, blue tarps dot on occasional roof in East Baton Rouge Parish.
“By adding it, we saved tens of thousands of dollars,” Kendall says. “If you don’t have it, your home depreciates in value and you wind up paying more out of pocket.”
Hurricane, or named-storm, deductibles were another cause of the 827 official complaints filed with the Department of Insurance after Gustav. If a named-storm deductible was included in their policy, homeowners who sustained damage from Gustav and Ike were required to pay out of pocket twice before the insurance company would make good on the claim.
The resulting controversy caused Gov. Bobby Jindal to sign a bill last month that restricts insurance companies from charging more than one named-storm deductible per hurricane season.
Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says the bill, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2010, was modeled after similar legislation enacted in Florida in 2005, one year after the state sustained damage from four named storms and homeowners in cities like Orlando were faced with up to three named-storm deductibles at once for Category 4 Charley, Category 2 Frances and Category 3 Jeanne.
“It [named-storm legislation] won’t be in effect this hurricane season, but it’s something we felt was necessary for homeowners in this state,” Donelon says. “It’s great peace of mind of homeowners so they won’t have to worry about dual deductibles if there are two storms.”
The deadline to file a lawsuit related to Gustav damage is Sept. 1. But Todd Rossi, a partner at Kean Miller who specializes in insurance coverage, is not anticipating an avalanche of last-minute suits because residences sustained more damage than businesses. The majority of suits already have been filed and been settled.
“I suspect more homeowners will be more aware of changes made in their insurance policy this year,” he says. “It’s when homeowners don’t know what is and isn’t covered under their policy that issues arise.”
Donelon isn’t as optimistic about the private market’s chances of stability if named storms threaten Louisiana during this hurricane season, which continues through Nov. 30.
“Last year, the market rocked right along,” he says. “I don’t believe it will do as well if we have another named storm. Will we? Who knows?”
