National League of Cities to discuss emergency prep

A group that supports “strengthening and promoting cities as centers of opportunity, leadership and governance” will visit Baton Rouge on Monday to learn about the Red Stick Ready campaign on emergency preparedness, as well as to get a feel for how government agencies band together locally in the face of disaster. The Washington, D.C.- based National League of Cities is impressed with the campaign’s half-hour programs on dealing with hurricanes, fires, viral pandemics and nine more topics to be explored, including a chemical accidents show appearing next month on public-access TV and the Web, says JoAnne Moreau, director of the Mayor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. She says the league told her that “Baton Rouge is like an untold story” because of its success coping with Hurricane Katrina, from hosting local governments in exile to routing a fleet of Blackhawk helicopters and fire engines from the emergency operations center by the airport. “We had Andrew, but we never dealt with anything of the magnitude of Katrina,” Moreau says. “It was certainly a very serious learning experience.” She says four officials from the league will visit in the morning to glean those lessons, and the city will host a news briefing on the visit at 2 p.m. Monday at the operations center, 3773 Harding Blvd. View Red Stick Ready programs here.—Todd R. Brown