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Louisiana Recovery Planning Day
Last updated: 01/16/2009
Introduction
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| Courtesy: Heidi Recksiek, NOAA |
A key opportunity for public participation took place on January 21, 2006. Open house meetings were held concurrently in impacted parishes across Louisiana, as well as in a number of national locations where large numbers of displaced Louisianans were living. Louisiana Recovery Planning Day (LRPD) involved citizens in planning for their own long-term recovery, and gave people an update on recovery planning efforts in their home parishes.
LRPD was one component of a state-wide Long-Term Community Recovery (LTCR) effort. The Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) and federal agencies partnered to organize and coordinate the open houses. A primary objective of LRPD was to gather public input to identify the priority recovery issues unique to each community as well as to define each community's recovery principles, vision and goals.
Open houses were held in 25 of the most affected parishes and nine national cities housing large populations of displaced Louisiana residents. Several thousand Louisiana citizens attended. LTCR parish planning teams composed of professional planners, engineers and other technical experts coordinated the in-state open houses. The production of out-of-state events was assisted by a consortium of professional organizations consisting of the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Planning Association, American Institute of Architects, National Trust for Historic Preservation, American Society of Landscape Architects and the Urban Land Institute.
During the open houses, maps, charts, and other informational displays provided attendees with information about impacts to their home parishes and about long-term planning efforts that are underway. Attendees were asked to share their thoughts and ideas via feedback forms, notes placed on posters, and discussions with planning team members. Collected information was summarized and analyzed to inform ongoing recovery planning efforts.
Credit: NOAA Coastal Services Center
Methods, Tools, and Data
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| Courtesy: Heidi Recksiek, NOAA |
- One-page form listing 15 recovery needs: Attendees identified their top three priorities.
- Large posters for five recovery topics: Attendees were asked to provide input on housing and community development, environmental and coastal issues, transportation and infrastructure, human services, and economic development. Attendees used post-it notes to record their ideas.
- Large posters asking specific questions related to recovery: Attendees were asked to indicate their answers using sticky dots.
During the day-long open house events, staff teams welcomed attendees, helped them provide input at each of the poster "stations," and provided the priority issue forms. After the event, the staff teams entered all of the input from the forms and posters into pre-developed excel spreadsheets. The data was subsequently compiled and summarized by the LTCR effort.
It is important to note that this project did not involve a statistically valid representative sample for each of the affected parishes or for the entire state. Outreach about the events was targeted at citizens impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and organizers certainly aimed to get attendees that were representative of the impacted population.
Discussion of Results
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| Hurricane Katrina made landfall in southeastern Louisiana on August 29. |
Findings from LRPD are summarized in the Louisiana Recovery Planning Day: Parish and State Report (Louisiana Recovery Authority and Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2006.) This report summarizes findings from all of the events, as well as providing results for individual parishes.
As one example of the findings, when asked to prioritize amongst 15 different recovery needs, the following three needs received the most support:
- Build better levees & other hurricane protection,
- Encourage development of new housing, and
- Restore coastal areas.
Lessons Learned
Two important lessons from LRPD were related to attendance/participation. Turnout rates at the different events demonstrated the importance of outreach before public input events; turnout was good in parishes where on-the-ground teams were working with citizens on a daily basis and actively promoting the meetings, but turnout was not as good in out-of-state cities where displaced citizens may not have known about the events. The organizers also learned the importance of providing transportation and ensuring free parking at meeting venues. These variables influenced attendance, and thus the representativeness of the input received.
Two other important lessons related to planning for consistent data collection and data management. Providing training to the largely volunteer staff that worked the LRPD events was essential to ensuring consistent data collection across the more than 30 venues. Similarly, having a data management plan before the events took place was key to ensuring complete and accurate data collection.
Management Implications
In the short-term, the findings informed the on-the-ground efforts of parish level recovery teams who were working with parish citizens to develop recovery projects. The results of these planning efforts came together in an online planning support tool that identifies recovery projects at the parish level.
In the long-term the findings of LRPD informed subsequent and ongoing recovery planning efforts at parish, state, and national levels.
Contacts/Resources
Contacts:FEMA and the Louisiana Recovery Authority led the effort, but numerous entities and individuals contributed to LRPD. For more information, contact Heidi Recksiek of the NOAA Coastal Services Center.
Resources:
Louisiana Recovery Authority and Federal Emergency Management Agency. 2006. Louisiana Recovery Planning Day: Parish and State Report [PDF]. Accessed on June 1, 2007.
Louisiana Speaks, A long-term community planning initiative of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. Accessed June 1, 2007.
Louisiana Speaks: Parish Recovery Planning Tool. Accessed June 1, 2007.