Emergency workers keep busy in Gustav’s wake

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Hurricane Gustav may have blipped off the national media's radar screen, but federal and state officials here continue to deal with its aftermath. Gustav knocked out 13 of the 14 high-power transmission lines in Louisiana while downed trees zapped local distribution lines, said Eddie Pack, a planner with the Army North defense coordinating element working out of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's joint field office here.

The power shortage is affecting everything from critical facilities, such as hospitals, to local gas stations. It is particularly acute here in the state capital, which "has never suffered damage as severe as that caused by Hurricane Gustav," according to Entergy, the largest power company in the state.

Zach Cook, action officer for emergency power for the Army Corps of Engineers, said restoration of power "is the No. 1 priority" in the wake of the storm. Even so, it could be weeks before some parts of the state regain power. Entergy estimated that it would not have power completely restored until Oct. 1.

Meanwhile, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced at a press conference on Thursday that the state was taking the unprecedented step of buying 400 generators so gas stations and grocery stores could reopen. Ed Conley, a spokesman for FEMA said the agency will reimburse the state for some of these generators.

Cook said long outages can be a problem even for hospitals that have their own generators. On Wednesday he was scrambling to find a 1.5 megawatt generator for a hospital that needed a second power source within 48 hours to avoid closing.

The joint field office can meet some emergency power requests with the 100 generators pre-deployed by FEMA, Cook said. But those generators operate in the kilowatt range. More powerful megawatt generators are needed for large facilities.

Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of the U.S. Northern Command, which provides disaster support to civil authorities, urged state and local officials to exercise caution in returning hospital patients and nursing home residents until power is restored.