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Storm Communications Good to Go

August 28, 2008

Ryan Rivet
rrivet@tulane.edu

With Hurricane Gustav looking as if it will enter the Gulf of Mexico this week, now is the time for members of the Tulane community to refine and dial-in their emergency response plans. Even though predicting the ultimate path of a hurricane is like playing meteorological roulette, the university administration wants students, faculty and staff to be aware of the systems put in place to keep them in the know, and make sure their plans are in place.

“Although it is still too early to tell if this storm will pose any threat to the New Orleans area, the storm does serve as a reminder for all of us to be prepared to act if necessary,” says Anne Banos, vice president and chief of staff.

In addition to the emergency website, the university has a system in place for rapid dissemination of critical information by voice messaging sent to telephones and text messages sent to mobile phones.

The system allows the university to broadcast 400,000 messages within 30 minutes to the entire Tulane community — students, faculty, staff — in one “blast” when directed by Debbie Grant, vice president of university communications, whose office is responsible for emergency communications.

When students confirmed their classes on the registrar’s TOUR system, they were asked to provide a cell phone number to be used in an emergency. If they did not put in their current cell number, students are urged to do so. Faculty and staff members must go to the emergency website and make sure their contact information is up-to-date, especially their cell phone number. The latest emergency information also is available by calling the Tulane AlertLine at 504-862-8080 or 877-862-8080.

If the emergency alert message calling for mandatory evacuation is sent out to the university community, each individual should implement his or her evacuation plan. Now is the time to be sure a plan is prepared.

“The most important thing is to have an evacuation plan in place,” says Greg Southworth, Tulane’s emergency response director. “Don’t rely on the university or the state and federal government to take care of you.”

While he urges all students to have their own plans, Southworth makes it clear that the university will do everything it can to safeguard the well-being of students.

“We will not leave any students behind. For those students who don’t have a way to evacuate, we have a procedure in place. We have busses on contract so we can get students to Jackson State University, in Jackson, Miss. But it should be an option of last resort.”

Tulane’s Office of Emergency Preparedness website has hurricane procedures for students, faculty and staff, as well as useful links to disaster resources.

http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/082808_storm_communication.cfm

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Campus Closes Ahead of Storm

August 29, 2008

Ryan Rivet
rrivet@tulane.edu

Although Gustav’s erratic storm track is making it tough to tell if it will bear down on New Orleans, Tulane’s senior leadership team has made the call to close the university as of noon today (Aug 29). The administration wants the university community to know that plans are in place and every effort is being taken to prepare students and make sure they are out of harm’s way.

“We want to ask students to inform their parents of their personal plans. Parents should be assured that the university takes the safety of our students very seriously,” says Cynthia Cherrey, vice president and dean of students. In addition, Cherrey urged parents to “encourage your sons and daughters to keep checking the university’s emergency website for the most accurate and up-to-date information.”

Officials from Tulane’s Office of Housing and Residence Life have been getting students ready. On Wednesday evening (Aug. 27) students on the uptown campus attended mandatory floor meetings with their resident advisers. The resident advisers talked with each student to assure that each one has a personal plan for evacuation.

“That’s one of the things the RAs talked about,” says Marty Brantley, director of housing services and residence life. “Obviously, a major concern is the freshmen, because many of them don’t have cars. We are urging them to capitalize on the 20 percent of new students who are from Louisiana, whose families are probably coming to collect them. We also are encouraging our upper-class students to take freshmen with them. We are trying to get them paired up with freshmen they may have met through orientation.”

Preparations also have been made to evacuate any student who does not have personal means for evacuation. Buses are at the ready to transport students to Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., and plans are in place for the athletics teams as well.

Now that the decision has been made to close the campus, Brantley’s office has been identifying the students who are being evacuated by the university to Jackson via bus.

Also, a system is in place to keep track of students’ personal evacuation plans.

“Any student who lives in the (residence) halls has to report their plan to the front desk,” Brantley says. “Evacuation cards are slipped under their doors, and they will fill those out with their evacuation plan. As they turn those in, the information is entered into our database. So, before the final bus leaves for Jackson, we have that information updated, accounting for all of the students on campus. ”

Jeff Knapp, an area director with housing and residence life who attended some of the floor meetings, says the students seem prepared.

“The general vibe is that the students are ready,” Knapp says. “The freshmen had some questions, and we discussed how to get ready. We told them the university is very prepared and there’s no reason to be afraid because we have a good plan in place, and that we will be out of town before the storm hits and usually before the city evacuates.”

The resident advisers also discussed with the students the university’s emergency plan, reminding them to monitor the Tulane emergency website and the Alert Line (504-862-8080 or toll-free 877-862-8080) for the latest details on evacuation orders, closings, re-openings and other emergency information.

The Division of Student Affairs, which maintains a website for parents of Tulane students, has posted a message to parents on the site.

“As always, our main goal is to keep you connected and well informed about what is occurring at Tulane,” the statement reads. “As a parent, the best way you can help is by encouraging your student to visit the emergency website for accurate and up-to-date information and to have their personal emergency hurricane plan in place.”

The office regularly maintains a toll-free phone line for parents to call with questions, 877-TUPWAVE (877-887-9283), says Penny Wyatt, director of orientation and student transitions, who also oversees parents’ programs. The phone line will be staffed from 8 a.m. until 6 pm. today and from 8 a.m. until noon on Saturday (Aug. 30).
 

http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/082908_evacuation.cfm

WDSU - Hurricanes 2008

http://www.wdsu.com/hurricanes/index.html

Intense Hurricane Gustav remains on early Tuesday collision course with central Louisiana coast

by Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune

Saturday August 30, 2008, 7:23 AM

Dangerous Hurricane Gustav, which has already killed more than 70 people in its meander through the islands of the Caribbean Ocean, remains aimed at a midnight Monday landfall on the central Louisana coast just west of Morgan City and Houma as a Category 3 hurricane.

This forecast speeds up landfall very slightly. Tropical storm force winds will extend out 120 miles to the northeast at landfall, which would include most of the New Orleans area. Hurricane force winds will reach out 75 miles to the northeast, which could include West Bank communities in St. Charles and Jefferson parishes.

Forecasters Eric Blake and Lixion Avila of the National Hurricane Center predict Gustav will still have hurricane strength winds when it is just north of Lake Charles a full day after landfall. Such a slow passage over the state would impose an additional threat of flooding rainfall for both south Louisiana and southeastern Texas.

Gustav will be even stronger in the 36 hours before landfall, with the offical forecast calling for it to become a Category 4 storm with winds of 133 mph by 1 p.m. Monday in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico.

That could increase the threat posed by storm surge accompanying the hurricane as it moves ashore. Scientists at Louisiana State University warn that Gustav's diagonal path across water-rich wetlands in the Barataria-Terrebonne and Atchafalaya basins could result in devastating surge flooding of communities all along U.S. 90 in south Louisiana.

The threat of surge flooding in the New Orleans area is less clear, but LSU coastal wetlands specialist Robert Twilley said surge waters could reach well above Barataria Bay towards West Bank communities bordering Lake Salvador and other wetland areas south of the city.

Gustav reached Category 3 strength at 5 a.m. Central time today, as an Air Force reconnaissance plane found sustained winds of 115 mph as it approached the western tip of Cuba. The winds had increased to 120 mph by 7 a.m.

Hurricane Center forecasters continue to warn that Gustav's pathis anything but certain as it reaches the northern Gulf coast, thanks to a high pressure system expected to build south into Texas in the southern United States, and the timing of the departure of a trough of low pressure that extends into the central Gulf.

Some computer models slow Gustav as it reaches the shoreline and turn it west, almost in a semicircle.

The forecast's margin of error balloon now stretches from Mobile on the east to the southern Texas coast between Brownsville and Corpus Christi.