Fear Factor: Is NOLA Ready for Katrina Part 2?
Nervous Residents Cite Levees as Greatest Anxiety; Experts Say Fears May Be Well-Founded as Gustav Approaches
"For me, I couldn't really sleep yesterday," Angelique Valteau, a 27-year-old nurse who lives in the city's Gentilly neighborhood, told ABCNews.com.
Unlike Smith, Valteau did evacuate during Katrina, but instead of staying with her cousin in Baton Rouge for a week as she'd intended, she ended up temporarily moving to Long Island, N.Y. When she returned, she found the home that she had recently purchased decimated.
This time around, Valteau sees a city -- both its government and its residents -- being more proactive when it comes to planning.
"I think people are trying to be prepared. I think people do have a personal plan, and if they don't, they're definitely working on getting one," she said. "But I think the city is nervous. People are anxious, definitely."
New Orleans Evacuation?
This time around, city and state leaders are trying to clear up the non-responsive, disorganized reputation they earned around the country in Katrina's aftermath. This week, both Louisiana and Mississippi declared states of emergency when Gustav was still a tropical storm.
New Orleans plans to issue a mandatory evacuation order if a Category 3 or stronger hurricane comes within 60 hours of the city. Unlike Katrina, there will be no massive shelter at the Superdome, but instead, a plan designed to encourage residents to leave. The state has arranged for buses and trains to take up to 30,000 people to safety. The city expects an evacuation to take 24 to 36 hours.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has put 3,000 National Guard troops on alert, while FEMA has readied supplies, such as water, food and generators, to distribute in the region.
But it's not the city's organization level that has residents who have ridden out storms in the past fastidiously planning their exits; it's their shaken faith in the levees that were built to protect them.
"It feels like [the city] has a definite plan of action to evacuate the indigent and those with health problems," said 37-year-old Michelle Gibbs, who lives in Lacombe, right outside New Orleans. "I'm not confident about the levees holding."
Hurricane Gustav vs. Katrina
But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains that the system is different now than it was in 2005.
"Well, you know, I am not prepared to say what level of storm we can protect against," said Col. Jeff Bedey, who oversees the federal flood protection system in New Orleans. "The system is stronger today than pre-Katrina."
But all across the city, residents are packing up because of that shaken faith. Experts believe their fears may be well-founded.
"The general preparedness planning has been very, very much upgraded," said Irwin Redlener, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "Gov. Jindal has a handle on all the resources available. ... He's also putting alerts out to citizens and very extensively telling people what they need to do, what they need to be aware of.
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