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HURRICANE REPORT

Pineville, Friday, Sept 24, 9am. We have had a steady stream of two and three lanes of traffic through here—PINEVILLE/ALEXANDRIA, CENTRAL LOUISIANA— northward bound for the past twenty-four hours. Here in this area, so far as forecasters can say, we could possibly get as much as 25 inches of rain through next Monday. That could be serious because NORTH CENTRAL LOUISIANA has been in a three month drought. Lot of trees will probably fall over, hence power outages. They say we may also experience water outages because of the large number of KATRINA evacuees here plus large numbers of RITA people who have already arrived. As many people noticed on TV during the first few days in NEW ORLEANS, fires happen, even in the water and driving rain. If the municipal systems fail there is no way to fight the fires.

Things are probably hairy down in NEW ORLEANS again—it began raining there yesterday afternoon.

SHREVEPORT is another 120 miles northwest of ALEXANDRIA. Many are concerned with the KWVA Convention which is to be in SHREVEPORT, Oct 2-5. Effects in SHREVEPORT are expected Saturday, 09.24.2005, at 1800hrs. They still expect 50mph wind and some rain at that time but no damages or disruptions that will effect convention situation.

Should there be MAJOR damages at the HOUSTON, DALLAS, or MEMPHIS AIRPORTS which feed SHREVEPORT then we could have problems with arrivals in SHREVEPORT/BOSSIER CITY (contiguous location). All flights into and out of HOUSTON, to CENTRAL LOUISIANA at least—the smaller jets— are closed down effective 1800 hours today.

It appears that the entire command structure of KATRINA, all the federals, generals, etc. that you see on TV are now moved to BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE (SHREVEPORT) and CAMP BEAUREGARD (PINEVILLE)—I will be at BEAUREGARD shortly. FORT POLK (LEESVILLE) is continuing normal operations while prepared to give assistance as ordered by the Disaster Task Force.

We will keep you informed. A good Louisiana Radar of the storm is:
http://thetowntalk.gannettonline.com/weather/detail/s_la_irsat.html

Lou Dechert,
National President

(Posted 9/23/05)