How the State's Experience with Katrina Allowed Them to Respond Efficiently to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike

>> So here we are almost to the day almost
three years later, and we have Gustav

and Ike that roared through Louisiana
again and it's kind of like you've got

to get up and start all over again.

What is going to be the message because
we're working with people toward taking care

of themselves and things
are getting back to normal?

And so what were the lessons learned?

What could we do differently?

I think it certainly assisted us
in writing the grant this time

because we knew what had worked before.

We knew what we needed to get in there and
not have to start all over from scratch.

We had just downsized most of our programs which
meant that many of the staff had started looking

for other jobs; and so here we were able
to open up shop again and bring folks back

on board to kind of do the new work.

So it was in that sense easy to
kind of get the troops ready again

but in many respects folks were like
how long is this one going to last?

Can we suffer through another three years?

Or now we're trying to integrate talking
about being in Louisiana and what's beautiful

about Louisiana but what are some of the things
you have to kind of prepare for every year

so that children can kind of be aware of that,
and parents can be conscious of the need to kind

of have their papers together and money
together in case you have to evacuate

and your suitcase packed
and those kinds of things.

Because when you're prepared, there's less
anxiety; there's going to be anxiety of course

because of the unknown but we can kind of
decrease that by kind of having control

over the situation and we do know
that when parents and caregivers

and other adults are calmer and more
self-assured, then the children are not as upset

because they're tensing what we feel.

And so we've worked an awful
lot with our parents.