Refugees

My hometown (Alexandria/Pineville, LA) is about 180 miles from New Orleans, and thankfully, we were spared from the ravages of Katrina. Here locally, we got some breezy days and absolutely no rain while New Orleans and the Gulf Coast was catching hell. We're in good shape, locally. Because of our location, a lot of refugees are in town and this is a launching point for the relief effort.

Just down the road from my house, at Camp Beauregard (a National Guard facility), we see lots of commercial 18 wheel trucks bringing in relief supplies. The Louisiana National Guard has a brigade overseas, and the Headquarters of the LANG is in New Orleans, so they took a major hit. The folks at Camp Beauregard seem to be consolidating the relief effort and FEMA trucks are using it constantly. A few local Guard units have been activated as part of the relief effort and I have friends down there serving in that mess.

Across the river, in Alexandria, the Coast Guard has set up at Alexandria International Airport, a converted Air Force Base. I'm not sure what they are doing over there, but they are busy. The place is a beehive of activity.

Local police agencies have sent officers to New Orleans and the adjacent parishes, so we are working understaffed, but it is important to restore order and help the folks down there that need it. Law enforcement is a brotherhood and when a Sheriff calls for assistance, we tend to drop what we are doing and go help. Again, I have friends in local uniforms protecting and serving in that area.

We have a bunch of refugees in town, and I don't know if the number has been reported yet, but there are refugees at a number of civic buildings across Alexandria and Pineville. Many churches and schools have opened their doors to evacuees and we are doing the best we can with the overflow from the New Orleans area. We expect more as the evacuation continues.

The local schools are enrolling students that suddenly find themselves without a place to study. Lets face it, the New Orleans school system is toast, and will be for a while. Rapides Parish has opened the door for education and all the local schools are enrolling students.

Many evacuees have close ties to this community. For example, my sister is a resident of Mandeville, LA, and they were hit by the storm. She and her husband are camped out at Momma's place. If they had school-age children, they would be going to the local schools.

Many evacuees don't have any ties to this community and are being housed where ever the officials can find a bed for them. Rumors abound, but I have been unable to verify any of them. Folks like to gossip and the stories going around are getting better with each repeated telling. Don't believe everything you hear.

It seems that when Katrina went into the Gulf and threatened Louisiana, the refineries that were at risk shut down. The offshore oilfield was evacuated and production ceased for a few days. Much of the oilfield is now damaged. We are seeing a local shortage of unleaded gasoline. Prices are climbing and a number of local stations are out of unleaded gasoline. I expect that this shortage will be short lived and we'll see adequate supplies as the offshore rigs and refineries come back online, albeit at higher prices. One friend of mine has a husband who works offshore and he is out there now, trying to get his production rig back online. There are very few folks in the world who understand the petroleum industry like the roughnecks from South Louisiana, so I am confident that the oil will begin flowing soon.

It would be a big help if California and Florida would start tapping into their reserves offshore. One storm shouldn't shut down the whole gasoline distribution system, but it looks like that is what happened, at least locally. It would be really nice if we could burn some Florida gasoline until our offshore field is back running.

In short, Alexandria/Pineville is in crisis management mode, and will be for the near future. I'm sure that other communities across the state are operating in the same mode. It will be interesting to see how many of the evacuees will decide that they have lost everything and start over in this community that is new to them.