Planning for the Impossible

I bet a million dollars of BP is saying “We should have planned for the impossible, instead of the most likely.” So are the residents of my wife’s home state of Louisiana wishing the same thing? It is doubly true for those who have suffered from a case of “lightning” striking twice in the same place.
First, Katrina struck her nasty blow against the city where many natives thought they could ride it out in their homes, and then when the terrible force of the storm made it all too evident that staying wasn’t an option, the evacuation routes proved inadequate. Even with their rather sophisticated Interstate system, the escape became a nightmare of vehicles flooding roads, which simply became large parking lots.
The city known as “The Big Easy” became a place of no escape. None of us likes to remember those days of desperation, death and chaos when the lack of preparedness for such an unlikely storm brought it unlikely consequences, consequences which still are sadly evident as one drives through many neighborhoods in that struggling city.
Hurricane season is upon us and we, in our lovely seaside communities, welcome our hundreds of thousands of guests to come enjoy it with us. We owe it to them and ourselves not to be like the City of New Orleans, unprepared by inadequate evacuation planning.
To that end, Sen. Jeff Van Drew is sponsoring a bill, which addresses the do-able in a short range of time. This bill recognizes that Cape May County is the sixth most vulnerable place in the country as far as suffering from a damaging hurricane or storm. Our roads are woefully inadequate for evacuation and the public has no idea what to do in such a situation. Bill S264 is only a beginning, but at least it is a start.
Bill S264 is before the NJ Senate and deserves our support. In order to help him get this passed, please call Sen. John A. Girgenti’s office at 973-427-1229 and Sen. Stephen M. Sweeney at 856-251-9801 and tell them that for our safety, we need them to pass S264.
I cannot close this column without thanking Al Crossen for agitating to keep our safety in the fore. He has done much research, attends countless meetings and, in general, stirs the pot to make certain that our county doesn’t find itself in the chaos that our neighbor to the south did when Katrina struck.
We are all learning that we must plan for the impossible, for given enough time, the impossible happens…Just ask Tony Hayward of BP.
ART HALL, publisher
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