Chertoff Says Be Prepared for Hurricane Season
May 23, 2006 — -- New Orleans will start testing new emergency response plans and revamped evacuation procedures beginning today.
The two-day drill starts just 24 hours after forecasters at the National Hurricane Center offered up a hurricane forecast that once again carried two dreadful words: above average.
"That's not good news, and the message is very clear," said Max Mayfield, the center's director. "We need to be prepared."
The hurricane season officially begins June 1, and meteorologists believe the Atlantic has started a decades-long phase of intense hurricane activity, which is increased by warmer waters and weaker winds in the upper atmosphere to knock them down.
The National Hurricane Center says we could see four to six major hurricanes this year, and up to 16 named storms. Experts don't believe 2006 will be as bad as 2005, which saw a record 28 storms, including 15 hurricanes.
Seven of these hurricanes were considered "major," four of which hit the United States. About 12 percent of the U.S. population -- or 34.6 million people -- live in areas affected by hurricanes, about half of them in Florida.
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said that Hurricane Katrina, which caused 1,330 deaths and tens of billions of dollars in damage, served as a test for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Now the department is better prepared for a catastrophic storm. Chertoff said that supplies and communication equipment had been quadrupled and that federal officials had been coordinating with local authorities more effectively.
"We've had the opportunity to look back," Chertoff said. "Obviously, Katrina was an unprecedented storm. So it sets the upper boundary, if you will, of what we might have to fear."
Weather experts are saying that there is a possibility that hurricanes could become strong enough to be classified as a Category 6, but Chertoff said that the problem with Katrina was not the strength of the storm, but the structural issues in New Orleans, specifically the levees.
A group of scientists from the University of California, Berkeley is in New Orleans this week to issue a new report on the levees.
The scientists point to the 17th Street canal. As engineers repair the side that gave way, the other wall has now started to lean by three inches.
Chertoff: Listen to Warnings
"The storm was mainly felt in Mississippi," he said. "I think the underlying lesson is … it's unwise to try to take a chance. When told by local officials to pack up and evacuate, that's the time to follow instructions. If people cooperate and get themselves prepared, if they listen to instructions, we are in a much, much better position this year to avoid the kind of tragedies we had last year."
At a FEMA supply warehouse in Frederick, Md., workers were still loading the racks with medical supplies and water. It is a scene that is playing out from Miami to New Orleans.
New Orleans resident Rachel Mollera knows supplies are just one part of the equation. Her neighborhood sits in the shadow of the levees.
"The first rain we already had a few weeks ago, the pumps burned up," she said.
Chertoff has said that people need to take responsibility for their own survival in the event of a disaster like Katrina. People living in at-risk areas should have enough food, water and medicine to sustain themselves. They should also have a plan to get out of town.
Across the battered Gulf Coast, families are still living in temporary trailers.
"Where are these people supposed to go?" asked Elly Gilmore. Two years after Hurricane Charley, Gilmore is still living in a trailer in Punta Gorda, Fla.
When a storm hits, some of the most vulnerable are the sick and the elderly. ABC News was not able to find a FEMA evacuation plan for people with special needs.
"We are talking very intensely in the last month with local authorities, specifically about what they're doing in terms of special-needs populations, and we've surveyed the nursing homes, for example, and the hospitals," Chertoff said.
"We've determined, what are the number of people that are going to need special assistance? We are working with local officials to arrange for transportation for those people to make sure shelters have adequate medical supplies. So, in fact, there is a great deal of hands-on work," he said.