Please reach out and check on your neighbors, particularly those who are elderly or those with special medical needs. The special medical needs phone number is 658-2500.

You can get a great deal of up-to-date information, including open grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, home repair businesses, and restaurants, and also sign up for emergency alerts at the city’s emergency website at: http://ready.nola.gov .

Three Emergency Point of Distribution (POD) Sites Are Now Open

The National Guard has opened three emergency Point of Distribution (POD) sites where critical supplies are available including ice, water, and MREs in New Orleans East, Lower Ninth Ward and on the West Bank:
•         5501 Read Blvd in New Orleans East near Methodist Hospital
•         2730 Vespasian Blvd on the West Bank
•         700 Poland Ave., the Port of Embarkation in the Bywater

Sites will be open from 6am to 8pm, or until it is too dark to distribute supplies, until further notice.

The District “C” office number is 658-1030. Please also call 311 to report power lines down, street flooding, debris removal, or other issues. The city is using 311 reports to track areas of concern and to schedule city responses.

Councilmembers,

Below is an update that you or community groups can cut and paste to their websites.  I am providing this brief summary in advance of the morning briefing.

Entergy New Orleans Update – Friday, August 31, 9:45am

We have restored power to approximately 3,000 more customers since last night’s update bringing the total to approximately 15,000 customers since the peak of outages.  Transmission service is available to all substations and all substations are energized.  The next critical step is to restore the main feeders leaving the substations.  All of them have been assessed and those that sustained damage are being worked on.  This is a critical step to restore power to the community.  This must be completed in order to restore power to the lateral lines that supply power to neighborhoods and businesses.

We now have 1147 additional resources in our area: 899 including linemen, vegetation, and scouts; 208 for other support.   If the weather continues to cooperate, we anticipate making substantial progress today.  We should be near completion with all of our assessments today and should have most of our feeders back in service, leaving us with the lateral lines to repair.  Vegetation crews will continue to remove tree branches, debris, and vines from our lines.

We hope to restore power to a considerable number of customers today and I will send out more periodic reports beginning after noon.  We are working on getting you district-specific information today.

Again, we anticipate making good progress on our infrastructure and getting many customers in service today and tomorrow. Our crews are working hard, but more importantly they are working safely.  More information will be provided this afternoon.

Sincerely,

Gary Huntley

Entergy New Orleans, Inc.

Vice President Regulatory and Governmental Affairs

From: Mary B. Cunningham [mailto:mbcunningham@nola.gov]
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2012 3:16 PM
Subject: Thursday evening updates

Updates

• Search and rescue assisted evacuating stranded residents in Venetian Isles and the Lake Catherine Area.
• The Sheriff is accepting inmates, and preparing for inmate return on Friday, August 31.
• EMS has worked to transport nursing home patients when generators failed.
• All hospitals are on the energy grid with normal power.
• 12 of 15 nursing homes are still on generator power.  Poydras Home evacuated this afternoon to Lambeth due to failed generator.
• Assessment of City property began today.
• 19 traffic lights have been returned to service, damage assessments complete on 155 of 466 of all signalized intersections; cleaned debris from 40 catch basins; secured 9 leaning streetlights.
• Entergy continues to work to restore power.  As of 6:30 pm there are 143,000 outages in Orleans.  117,191 on the East Bank of Orleans and 25,925 in Algiers.
• The airport is expected to resume operations tomorrow.  (Please see previously send attachment for greater detail)
• As airport re-opens displaced passengers will be accommodated as space allows.
• Businesses are continuing to open throughout the city.
• As of 11:30 today, the RTA restored  service to 16 lines.  Limited bus service will be available tomorrow.  For more information on bus service please go to www.norta.com
• RTA will continue to service disabled riders, including medical/dialysis patients on an expedited basis.
• Based on a preliminary assessment the  St. Charles and Riverfront streetcar lines will not be restored at this time.  Buses will replace streetcars on Canal Street.  It will replace the streetcar on St. Charles only as weather permits.
• The LA National Guard delivered generators to St. Luke’s Nursing Home and continued to provide security details to several shelters, assisted in Search and Rescue operations in Venetial Isles, began debris removal, and assisted in facilitating the POD’s (Points of Distribution).
• The Causeway is open; the Hwy 11 bridge is still closed; twin span is open; I-10 from LA 641 to US 55 is closed; LA 628 to the Spillway is closed.  Check www.ladotd.com for details or call 511.

Mary Cunningham

Director, Constituent Services

Office of Kristin Gisleson Palmer

Councilmember, District “C”

New Orleans City Council

Telephone:  504.658.1030

Direct:  504.658.1033

Mobile:  504.906.3216

Fax:  504.658.1037

E-mail:  mbcunningham@nola.gov

Website:  www.nolacitycouncil.com

City Hall

Room 2W70

1300 Perdido Street

New Orleans, LA  70112

Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced the launch of a series of community meetings in each councilmanic district to discuss 2013 budget priorities. These meetings to gather input are part of the Budgeting for Outcomes process.  

“These community meetings allow us to hear directly from New Orleanians on what their budget priorities are,” said Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “We’re commited to producing results for our citizens and sticking to to our budgeting principles- cut smart, reorganize, and invest in the future.”

The Budgeting for Outcomes process is aimed at producing a more citizen-driven budget and ensuring improved government performance and accountability. A national best practice, the Budgeting for Outcome system encourages City agencies to invest public resources based on the end result the City wants to achieve.

The Mayor will host one meeting with the district councilmember in each council district. They will be joined by Deputy Mayors, NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas, NOFD Superintendent Charles Parent and department and agency heads.

All meetings will start at 6:00pm. Prior to the meeting, from 5:30-6pm, the City will host a Resource Center with representatives from several City departments and agencies. During that time, citizens will have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with various departments about programs, initiatives and specific complaints and concerns.  

The following is the list of community meetings in order of date:

District B, Monday, August 13, 2012 

Jewish Community Center, 5342 St. Charles Ave. 

District E, Wednesday, August 15, 2012 

Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Church, 5600 Read Boulevard

District C, Monday, August 20, 2012 

YMCA at Federal City, 2220 Constitution Street 

District A, Wednesday, August 22, 2012 

Lakeview Christian Center, 5885 Fleur De Lis Drive 

District D, Monday, August 27, 2012 

Dillard University, 2601 Gentilly Boulevard

Professional Schools Building, Georges Auditorium