Last year, hurricanes Katrina and Rita wrought devastation across the Gulf Coast, and many of corrections finest reached out to help their brothers and sisters in need. (See “Brothers and Sisters in Need”.)

As one of the nation's deadliest hurricanes, Katrina displaced millions of inmates while entire states scrambled to provide funding, supplies and resources.

As Louisiana began to clean up from the crippling effects of both storms, the Department of Public Safety and Corrections re-focused its strategy preparing for natural disasters.

“Obviously, if everyone's attention and focus wasn't on hurricane preparedness before, it is now,” says LDPSC's director of investigation and incident management Eric Sivula. “Part of our plan right now is focused on improvement. We had good, effective plans during Katrina and Rita, but we really had to step back and realize how every facility took action that impacted and interacted with other facilities.”

After the hurricanes, LDPSC officials called every corrections agency to the table. The multi-agency meeting provided a state-wide overview on how decisions are and should be made during disasters.

“When we talk about how each facility impacts each other, we're really talking about understanding evacuations,” Sivula explains. “Evacuating a south western facility directly impacts evacuating a south eastern facility, and vice versa, because we're dealing with limited resources. There are only so many buses, and there are only so many staff members that can help. We really had to get that message across to each facility.”

Before this meeting, many facilities resisted evacuation, which caused a problem last year when 10,000 inmates had to be relocated within a month.

“Each facility would say, ‘Oh, it doesn't look like the storm is coming towards us',” adds Sivula. “Our point is that if that facility waits six hours to evacuate, the resources they need might be somewhere else by then. When we all realized how much it impacted everyone to be hit by back to back storms that, in essence, evacuated all inmates out of the southern part of the state in a very short time frame, we had to change our planning techniques.”

Once Katrina and Rita passed, the National Institute of Corrections examined the LDPSC's plans and actions during the hurricanes and then made recommendations.

Sivula, a no-nonsense Southerner who called many of the emergency shots after Katrina and Rita, says NIC put into sharp relief that relying on cell phones and landlines alone was not enough. When power and signals were lost, officials found themselves unable to communicate within their own facilities or across state lines for help and information.

“We're really looking into the ham radio system now,” he says. “It's an old technology, but it isn't based on infrastructure, so it can survive if you lose a huge tower. We're in the process of examining that as an additional communication device.”

Despite the NIC's suggestions, Sivula defends his disaster preparedness plan.

“We had a solid, workable plan in 2005,” he recalls. “What nobody anticipated was that we would be struck by back-to-back hurricanes. Historically, in Louisiana, it has always been the case that storms come, the wind blows and it dies down. Within a few days, life returns to normal. But the level of devastation with Katrina meant that we had thousands of inmates who had no way to return to their facilities because those facilities no longer existed.”

Once officials gathered deserted inmates into other facilities, Rita escalated problems by forcing the evacuation of thousands more.

“In less than 30 days, we were struck by another hurricane in the opposite part of the state,” he says. “We had over 7,000 inmates evacuated by Katrina and then we had 3,000 more that needed to be moved because of Rita. We had plans, sure. But we had never imagined we'd have to deal with that number of inmates in such short order.”

The silver lining in the hurricane clouds was the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, which provided disaster-relief resource agreements that allowed desperately needed food, water and supplies. Corrections agencies nationwide also reached out to help.

“EMAC and other corrections agencies really helped us throughout all of this, especially after we got hit by Rita. We utilized several states under EMAC that sent us materials unique to corrections and staff with specific skills,” he explains.

In the aftermath, Louisiana stepped up what it needed to do to ensure EMAC assistance in the event of another Katrina-like hurricane.

“All the public information officers in Louisiana are undergoing EMAC tutorials,” says LDPSC PIO Pam LaBorde. “If we have another event like Katrina, there is no doubt we will need backup. We're getting our paperwork together now so we won't have to wait around. So far, we're estimating that we can shave eleven hours off of the time it takes to file this paperwork and get the supplies we need.”

In addition to the lessons learned, Sivula has a few tips for emergency preparedness that would benefit any DOC after a natural disaster.

First, emergency plans should always include back-up communication devices, like ham radio. Second, do not assume a resource you don't already have will magically appear when needed.

“You've got to know every resource on your list is real and factual. If you need bed space for 5,000 evacuated individuals, you better know exactly where that bed space is,” Sivula say.

Third, practice your procedures.

“It's one thing to say you're going to evacuate a prison. It's another to have a four hour practice to make sure the buses are fueled and prepared, the time sequence of the storm is going to allow you to execute your plans, and nothing else will go wrong. It might be hard budget-wise, but you need to exercise and practice your plan. Deficiencies and shortfalls only become clear when the plans is practiced and implemented,” the long-time emergency planner explains.

Lastly, make sure those who hold important information communicate it throughout the entire corrections system. This way if people leave their job, others will have the needed knowledge.

Looking back on last year's events, Sivula believes he's better prepared this year for whatever may come. He also remains thankful to those in corrections that reached across state lines to help out.
 
“The offers, resources and assistance were overwhelming,” he says. “The people in corrections were so genuine. We got a tremendous among of help from an awful lot of people, quickly and effectively, and we couldn't have achieved everything without that collaborative effort. The correctional community, on a national level, came through for the southern states and we couldn't be more grateful.”