Cover Story

Hurricanes present a variety of challenges for Mobilians

By Peter Teske

Lagniappe Staff

The scene is becoming all too familiar these days. No gallon water jugs are left at the supermarket. The local hardware store is out of plywood. Gas prices have risen further past their already astronomical levels. If you listen hard enough you might hear the hum of a generator being tested nearby. In all likelihood it’s windy or raining outside, probably both and it’s also likely it’ll be that way for a while.

With memories of Ivan and Katrina still fresh in the minds of Mobile residents, we feared the worst as Hurricane Gustav neared landfall. Would it hook east or stay on track to the west? The scene wasn’t much different this time around, the outcome, however, was far better for our area.

Regardless of the outcome, the sights and sounds of Gulf Coast residents as they prepare for the next big hurricane are just about what you might expect to see on the national evening news. That same evening news broadcast might not look any different if it was providing coverage of a large, devastating tornado that touched down in the Midwest.

But, in the uncertain time before a Hurricane’s landfall, when you’re hurriedly securing your home and collecting provisions or even preparing to evacuate, what is everyone else doing? And by “everyone else,” we’re talking about those responsible for securing something other than just a house.

First responders and those in the medical field must not only prepare their families and homes for adverse weather, but then head back to work to ensure the safety of the community during the worst of everything. Non-profit animal shelters must try to keep their animals safe in the buildings they already have or move the animals to a safer location, all within an extremely limited budget and a heavy dependence on donations. Big Business usually has a predetermined plan to carry out at the very least. And, small business owners have the additional responsibility of securing their establishments, that is, if they don’t decide to simply stay open.

It can be said that these scenes help to weave the resilient social fabric of Mobile and other Gulf Coast cities during Hurricane season. So the question begs to be asked once again. What was does everyone else do while you’re feverishly preparing yourself?

Providence Hospital

Selflessness is the name of the game over at Providence Hospital.

“Our first responsibility has to be to our patients. So, we have to make sure we can meet the needs of our patients and have the staff here to meet the needs of our patients,” said Michael King, director of planning and marketing at Providence Hospital in West Mobile.

That single responsibility is the reason not even Providence Hospital can escape a trip to the local hardware store, among other things.

“We’ve got to basically be able to sustain our facility, our patients and our staff for as long as necessary, during and after the storm,” King said.

Sustaining a 349-bed medical/surgical facility entails an enormous amount of work, even on a daily basis. As a hurricane approaches, and with no option of evacuating, simple tasks like topping off the fuel in generators and acquiring extra food and water are just the beginning of a steep uphill climb.

When the likelihood of a storm hitting the area becomes certain, Providence kicks it into high gear. Protocol involves ordering extra medical supplies and making arrangements for extra staffing, according to King.

But, while formidable, that isn’t the only challenge. To meet the needs of both patients and extra staffers it is essential to provide the families of medical staff with peace of mind and suitable shelter.

“We actually open a family shelter for people who are working and want to shelter their families here at the hospital. Then, as it gets closer we would actually start boarding up vulnerable areas of the building and going to lock down,” King explained.

If you could imagine, the task of providing food and shelter to anywhere from three to five times as many people as usual, without full power, has the potential to cause some headaches.

“We do not have enough generator capacity to fully air-condition the facility. If the power is out for an extended period of time, it can become somewhat uncomfortable in the building. We don’t have full lighting capabilities either. But, our patients are completely safe,” King said. “I think the biggest challenge we have is making sure everyone stays fed. We have a cafeteria that is here to serve our employees on duty. And, when, suddenly you add enough staff to cover immediate needs of patients as well as a relief shift, or a couple of relief shifts, then you have maybe doubled your staff, and then you also have to take into account that those staff members have families here. Suddenly we’ve got three, four, five times as many people to feed.”

The food service headache is relieved somewhat, or at least not compounded by the possibility of severe flooding. A well-drained location on high ground in West Mobile comforts King when he thinks back to the devastation Katrina brought to New Orleans hospitals just three years ago.

“The hospitals in New Orleans were in a different situation, but their generator rooms flooded and lost emergency power. Our facility is on high ground out here. So, having a catastrophic flooding event that would cause us to lose emergency power is much less likely,” said King.

Sean Sullivan, Lagniappe’s own columnist and 106.5 The Pirate morning radio show host, has seen Providence’s hurricane preparation first-hand. Sullivan was at Providence with his wife as they welcomed their daughter into a windy, rainy, tropical world during Katrina’s landfall.

After boarding up a house he was trying to sell, the house he was building and the house he was currently living in, Sullivan was only looking for a quick nap on the couch when his wife informed him she thought her water had broken that Sunday night.

“We realized she forgot her pre-packed back so I had to go back in the middle of landfall to get her bag. When I get back to Providence again, the power had gone out. The maternity floor has power and most things are working, but air conditioning was not one of them,” said Sullivan.

A bit uncomfortable?

“So it starts heating up and heating up. Nurses are fanning doctors to keep them from sweating because of the area they’re working in, you know,” said a laughing Sullivan.

Things went well with the delivery and even though every nurse in the hospital was asking if the Sullivans would name their daughter Katrina, Sean remembers the squeak of his shoes on the floor from the sweat.

“It sounded like a basketball game going on. It was as hot as it could be,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan also remembered the eerie feeling of watching the weather through the window.

“While I’m sitting next to my wife and the baby, I look out the window and see pieces of roof and shingles fly off of the surrounding buildings,” Sullivan said. “It was quite an experience.”

Baldwin County Humane Society

When a storm is fast approaching, many seem to forget about our equally frightened four legged friends. Even so, the humane societies in and around Mobile and Baldwin counties have a plan for each of their kennels.

Some facilities in coastal or lower lying areas choose to take their foster animals north. When this becomes necessary, an established network of animal lovers pulls through in the clutch every time.

“We have kennels and boarding places that may be closer to the coastline or in low lying areas. If a hurricane was designated to be coming this way, we would work to get those animals into what we would deem more secure facilities. We’ve got those facilities designated and have people that would agree to take the additional animals,” said Vice President of the Baldwin County Humane Society Jim Turner.

Some kennels don’t need to move their animals very far due to readily available, fortress-like buildings and the kind hearts of a select few.

“We also have volunteers and board members who have some strong metal or cinder block buildings that we can use as shelter. And, they have made those available to us for both housing animals that need to be moved, as well as housing people who volunteer to stay behind and feed and water the animals,” Turner said. “It’s just not feasible to move all the animals out of Baldwin County. So, we have to find places for them to stay and make sure there will be volunteers to help man the facilities to make sure our animals are well cared for.”

Shelter isn’t the only issue, however. Along with those blessed with opposable thumbs and the ability to stand upright, food becomes a problem for pups and cats alike. They’ve got stomachs too!

“There’s always the issue of needing food for donations. We took in a lot of the animals that were made homeless in Katrina. We certainly brought them into our shelters, which was very expensive. Now, we were able to get donations. A lot of the times pet food companies were donating food to us and, that’s always a help, but what people need is money because it’s very difficult, especially after a hurricane where a lot of facilities might be damaged, to find a place to store a tractor trailer load of dog or cat food,” Turner noted. “It’s always better to have cash and let us buy the things we need as needed.”

Alabama State Docks

Judith Adams, manager of media relations and economic development at the Alabama State Docks, along with her team, is on the job up to 96 hours or four days before a hurricane hits.

“We prepare for any potential flooding, we prepare against wind damage. Our typical stow away procedures include locking down large equipment like cranes, stowing small equipment and cargo in warehouses and sheds and moving our fleets to higher ground. These are the types of activities we undertake before locking down the port and sending our employees home,” said Adams.

Probably the most daunting task for tenants of the State Docks is shipping watercraft up river for safety in the case of flooding. This is not only done for the safety of the vessels, but also for the safety of anyone or anything situated along the banks of the Mobile River.

“Terminal operators, people with barges and fleets and small craft – like the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard – many, many who have small craft will ship them up river for safety,” Adams said.

The turbulent weather endangers not only the safety of assets on land and in water, but also the ability to recover. Katrina’s storm surge caused flooding at the main docks, which damaged the dredge disposal areas, including Gilliard Island and other operations necessary for maintenance of the channel.

Simply put, the State Docks’ preparation can greatly impact the speed at which Mobile as a city can recover.

“When you have a large storm surge and high winds buffeting small craft and barges, they can break free of their moorings and cause damage. These assets are far too valuable for loss, so to move them up river and inland protects them, because a lot of this equipment, and a lot the barges, and special craft and small craft are used extensively in a recovery effort,” Adams explained. “We can’t afford to lose them during storms, so they are moved out of harms way.”

The Coast Guard and the Corps of Engineers are especially essential to a recovery effort because they are needed to place channel markers for dredging, surveys and many other things before the Port can return to an open status. “Without that equipment it would be very difficult for us to get back to operating status,” Adams said..

Also playing an important role in making sure Mobile has a great head start in recovering for the State Docks is the Port Police.

“The Port Police remain on dock and they have a fall back provision and a bunker, one that is built to withstand storms and maintain our communication. So, Port Police remain on facility during the entire storm as well as our harbor master,” Adams said.

Veets

So is all this hurricane activity getting you down? Come to Veets and wash your sorrows away.

“We’ve got power, cold beer and ice.” That’s what Gina Previto tells just about everyone she knows when a hurricane is on its way.

While many are panicking to get out of dodge, the Previto family is usually calmly boarding up the street-front windows of their business in Downtown Mobile, all in preparation for an much-needed public service of sorts. “We get serious and then we play,” Previto said.

And, when you provide such a public service, it’s easy to forget which hurricane goes with what story. But, make no mistake about it, there is no shortage of stories.

“When they had a curfew a while back, I can’t remember which one, but a few cops drove by and told us there was a curfew and asked what we were doing. I told them we were having a lock-in. They asked if we were staying all night. I said, yeah we’re gonna stay all night. So they said OK and drove off. We had a ball. The band played all night. Good times,” remembered Previto.

Public service or not, no matter which way you look at it there’s some money to be made. Previto recalled Veets, once again, being the only bar open after a hurricane had hit and calling her sister to come into work. Once her sister had refused about two or three times, Gina Previto found herself running the bar and at the end of the day, “I worked that morning ‘till that night and I forget what the bar’s numbers were, but I had made over $800 in tips. I still tease my sister about that.”

So, is it luck? Why isn’t this place flooding? How come they never lose power?

Previto thinks it’s a combination of things. Despite 66 Royal St. appearing to be located on low-ground and very close to a large river, it is actually situated on a fairly high spot in downtown Mobile. And, as for the power, “our lines are underground so we don’t have any problems with wind or anything like that,” Previto said.

It has to be luck. In fact, it seems that the biggest hurricane-related problem Veets has experienced in recent history is a leaking section of roof just past the front door. Just a scratch compared to the damage sustained elsewhere along the Gulf.

“That’s an old roof, we need to replace it anyway,” Previto said.

It takes all kinds, as they say. It seems that once immediate family and the subsequent dwelling is taken care of, attention is quickly turned to professional life for many a Mobilian. Whether that be saving a life or bringing a new one into the world, making sure our area’s less fortunate animals are safe, keeping a barge from clipping our precious RSA Tower in half or keeping the beer gods on our side, everyone sure seems to be busy.

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