State and Federal Officials Coordinate Evacuation Timelines
Release Date: July 10, 2006
Release Number: 1603-507
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BATON ROUGE, La. -- State and Federal officials met today at the State Emergency Operations Center to continue work on the synchronization of evacuation procedures for the State of Louisiana. Today's meeting was an operational walk-through of the evacuation actions for a mock storm, Hurricane Jasper.
The exercise examined procedures to be in place 120 hours prior to tropical-storm force winds reaching the Louisiana coast and ending following landfall of the eye of the storm.
"It is critical that we engage in exercises such as these to hone our ability to support the state during federally declared emergencies," said Gil Jamieson, FEMA’s deputy director for Gulf Coast Recovery and designated Principal Federal Official.
"The meeting today allowed us to narrow our focus to important evacuation elements such as evacuating citizens with medical and special needs, pet evacuations, transportation and logistics," said Col. (R) Pat Santos, assistant director of emergency management.
Today’s meeting was a continuation of the on-going partnership between the Federal government and the State to be prepared and ready for an event this hurricane season.
FEMA manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.
Last Modified: Tuesday, 11-Jul-2006 07:04:43