5/8/09 Houma Courier, Staff Editorial: Let’s get going on these plans

http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20090508/OPINION/905089993?Title=Let-s-get-going-on-these-plans

Let’s get going on these plans

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Published: Friday, May 8, 2009 at 8:42 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, May 8, 2009 at 8:42 a.m.

The news this week from the Connecticut-based Disaster Accountability Project didnít do much to ease local fears about the looming hurricane season.

The group tried to evaluate the emergency plans that have been put in place by Terrebonne, Lafourche and 20 other coastal Louisiana parishes.

Although the study was conducted by law students, not experts in public safety, the difficulty they had getting public information is disturbing. Similarly, although the study failed to look at how the state has worked with the various parishes, it did examine how much information is accessible to the public.

On the positive side, Lafourche was one of just four of the 22 examined that had their plans available on the Internet.

On the negative side, though, Terrebonne Parish was one of 11 that refused to share their plans or did not respond to the groupís numerous requests for information.

The group was told that it could not see any plan until the official release May 15.

The parish has refused similar requests for access to drafts of the plan made by the newspaper. The only document made available under one public-records request was a plan that was last revised in 2004 – before hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and Gustav and Ike last year.

The most-important part of making the plans available to the public is to solicit feedback and make sure the public knows what will happen if emergencies strike.

Unfortunately, in the local case, there has been no call for public input and the information that does exist is inaccessible to the public.

“It’s hard for anyone to really know how prepared the parish is because the plan isn’t available,” said Ben Smilowitz, executive director of the project. “I don’t think it’s a smart practice to just take someone’s word.”

We agree, particularly in light of the debacle Terrebonne Parish made of its storm response to Hurricane Gustav. A command structure that accounted for the responsibilities of the parish and the Sheriff’s Office was not set up until well after Gustav had struck.

That is much too late to be making those arrangements. Unfortunately, judging from Terrebonne’s lack of communication about its current plan, there is no way to know the planning process is any farther along even now.

Extending every benefit of the doubt, Terrebonne’s plan that should be unveiled next week might contain everything needed to keep officials and the public well-informed about plans for emergencies that might arise.

However, two weeks before hurricane season is too late a date to make the information available and will allow little time for public input even if the parish has any plans to seek that input.

We encourage Lafourche and Terrebonne to move quickly but carefully in formulating plans that could well make the difference between life and death for some parts of the population. And, they should invite public comment on those plans – and consider those comments in making possible improvements to the plans.

Even without viewing the issue in such dire terms, it is essential for local officials to take seriously the duty they have to come up with these plans, inform the public about them and solicit input that could point out flaws or shortcomings before the plans are needed.

It is part of our local parishes’ primary responsibilities to its constituents.

No one in our corner of the world should need a group in Connecticut to remind us of that.

Editorials represent the opinions of the newspaper, not of any individual.