Watch: City of New Orleans provides post-Hurricane Francine updates

Um ok. Thank you, Mr Terry. And again, uh as uh Mr Terry indicated, we just appreciate uh you all being here to get the most uh updated information to share with our residents with our visitors uh across the board. Thank you for uh just continuing the leadership here, continuing to respond and show up on behalf of the people that we all collectively serve. Just thank you to all of our residents, our citizens. I mean, across the board, I think we can give it up for them, you know, thank you. Look, you know, um people stayed inside, you know, you, you listen, you adhere to uh what we were given out in terms of the information and you just did what we asked you to do. You know, there's always some outliers, no doubt about it. Uh But at the end of the day, we can say that a job well done across the board city of New Orleans. And we're shifting of course to not only assessments but responding to the needs existing conditions uh that are on the ground right now. Proud of, of course, all of our first responders. As I mentioned, our public safety teams, all of our essential personnel, just the employees of the city of New Orleans across the board. Just thank you so much for what you've been doing and what you will continue to do uh from this day. And of course forward as we move from uh Hurricane Francis, the impacts of hurricane Francis, public works, sanitation and park and parkways as you know, have been out since daybreak again. Thank you to all of our employees again, responding and being boots on the ground. We want everyone to call 311 to report uh any down uh power lines as well as branches. Uh We want you to continue to be a good neighbor and to check on your neighbors, particularly our most vulnerable and of course, our seniors in our community and those living with disabilities, we're all first responders that uh goes without saying, but you know what we are. And um again, just thank you for how you are responding to the needs of all of our people. As of this morning, we know that energy is still reporting over 50,000 customers without power in Orleans Parish. You will get uh updates at this press conference as well. Just the work continues to happen even while we're, we're here right now, it's happening and we will give you information again as we receive it. Um Also uh we are standing up emergency resource uh centers again because we've invested and being very intentional. We're able to respond to the needs of our community in real time. So these e uh we calling them um er CS emergency resource centers are being activated today from two pm to 7 p.m. These are uh making sure that we're providing a access to our public to our residents uh for their ability to charge medical devices, mobile devices, uh cooling stations just to um you know, get resources that we have um to provide residents with. Uh these four areas will be the Joe Brown Rec Center 56 01, Reed Boulevard. Of course, the Treme Recreation Community Center, 900 north vary street. Uh The cut off center uh 6600 Belgrade Street, Rosenwald Rec Center 1120 South Broad. You're gonna get more information. We'll continue to push uh this out again, 2 to 7 p.m. They will uh be open again, all of our um just our employees. I'm thinking about uh Nord C right now. Uh just have been unwavering uh in their ability to provide services to our public. You'll hear more about this from leaders that will follow me uh together New Orleans. Uh They will stand up their lighthouses uh in the city as well. More information on that again, when you invest intentionally here, we can see the benefits of that. The city of New Orleans and partner organizations invested. We have these lighthouses again to provide the light in the community for resources uh to meet our people where they are uh co-operation, of course, uh in collaboration, we know that these things are key. Uh And we're gonna continue to ask uh for cooper operation and collaboration and coordinating every step of the way. So with that, I'm going to ask our Director of Homeland Security uh Colin Arnold uh to come forth and then you'll hear from other leaders following Colin, of course, I'll be in and out. So with that, um Colin give your updates and we'll keep it going. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor and thank you for your leadership. We remain activated in the city's emergency Operations Center. Uh We now switch from a response mode to recovery mode. Uh As the mayor mentioned, we're gonna have emergency resource centers set up today by 2 p.m. She mentioned those locations cut off on the West Bank. Um Rosenwald in Central City Treme Center in Treme and Jill Brown in New Orleans East. We're gonna evaluate these daily uh the regular hours. If we're open tomorrow will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. I can't say enough about Larry Barabino and, and Jena Vno, you know, uh um they're, they're both on my Christmas card list perpetually, uh every time we ask for help, they're there. And uh you know, we, we provided shelter to people who really needed it throughout this storm over 100 and 17 last night uh at the Rosenwald Center and um it just, you know, amazing work done by all. And I'm really proud of my team with no se and all of our partners. Really. Um, we had 6 to 8 inches of rain, uh, in about a two hour period last night. Uh, I believe Kevin from the airport told us they set a record of 7.23 inches of rain at MS Y which is more than they had during Katrina. It's more than they had during IDA. Um It, it, it's uh it was something else and uh wind gusts 50 to 60 miles an hour here downtown. I was very um proud to learn that uh the weather wise.nola.gov, our, our weather website was the most viewed city website yesterday, which I'm I'm really happy about and thank you to the public for doing that and, and staying weather aware, I think uh almost everyone heeded our warnings. I think we've seen some video uh of someone who didn't and it was compelling and terrifying and maddening and should serve as a reminder that you cannot drive into these, these streets and these flooded streets and underpasses it, it, it, you will lose your life. And fortunately, someone who part of our extended family with the university Medical Center was there to assist that driver and save his life. And uh you know, uh I just um we really need to pay attention and, and I think for the most part, I'd give credit to the, the residents of the city that they did. Um, like I said, our main concern right now is for those without power. Uh, we wanted to make sure that people have a, a place to cool off. Uh, I think temperature, uh, at least, uh, until the weekend's gonna be on our side on this one, which is a good thing, but it will be warmer over the weekend. And like I said, we'll assess whether or not we need to continue these centers as power is restored to the city. Um We're working close with energy to track, uh just that the power restoration, they've been a great partner. Uh And uh since this uh hurricane uh prediction for this season came out the 2024 season, I think everybody here has been bracing for this. Um We've been expecting that it was going to be a really busy season and although, you know, knock on wood, it hasn't turned out to be exactly the season by the numbers that, that they were predicting. Um People have listened to our message and we've all worked well together, uh both within government and within the community. And I'm just very proud, uh you know, and we've got some challenges ahead over the next couple of days, but all things considered the way this storm went and how much impact we got yesterday. I think we're, we're in a very good place for those that do have damage the last thing I'll say, uh I've promoted this, this uh tool before and I, I'd like to do it for this event as well. And that's damage dot L a.gov. That's damage dot L a.gov. This is an opportunity if you have property damage to um to self report that you can upload photos, you can document it. And uh it's a very useful tool because we do have a declaration for this. We are, we do have a damage threshold that we must meet and any assistance uh that you can do to help us document damage is very helpful both to us and to the state who actually runs that that website. So damage dot L a.gov, um Fire Department, Police Department and our own uh hazard mitigation teams have been out since the storm passed doing preliminary damage assessments. Um You know, it's a good thing that they're not seeing a whole lot, but you know what they're not seeing, please report if it's out there and that will help us damage dot L a.gov. And again, just thank you to everyone. Thank you. And I'm going to ask now, uh Doctor Beno, doctor, beg to give your update. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Um Give you just a health care update. Our hospitals reported no issues overnight. Um I really wanna thank the dedicated staff at both Ner and LC MC Health Systems who hunkered down, who stayed in the hospital for 24 hours. More who took care of the patients regardless of what the winds were doing. So, um, you know, they, they're diff, it makes a difference and they're doing, they're doing well. Um, most of our dialysis clinics are open today. There are three DC I clinics that are not yet open. So, if you are a DC I patient, you should have a hotline to call, please call that and they will figure out how to get you in if you are scheduled for dialysis. Uh We have six nursing homes currently on generators. These have been prioritized uh toy as, as being of the highest priority to get back up and running. And so we appreciate their help with that. There's no issues reported in any of them. Um Our independent living facilities, we have about 68 that we, we follow um under the ordinance. As of right now there, we estimate there are 23 without power. Uh The health department has strike teams in the field right now going to each one that either we know doesn't have power or we think might not have power to check out what's going on. We are identifying any needs that they have so far. My teams have not identified any critical needs, but I do wanna remind um those facilities that they are required to check in by noon every day. So please, if you have not sent us your update, we wanna hear your update. Um And again during a declared emergency. As, as per the ordinance, there needs to be a point of contact on site so that when we go, we have someone to talk to who can help us figure out who needs um things. So I appreciate their cooper operation with that. Uh as was mentioned by madam mayor and Colin, we are setting up uh oxygen exchange uh at some of the, er CS. What we know right now is that Rosenwald and cut off, we will have oxygen distribution there for individuals who have oxygen who are not going to be able to get their regular delivery of oxygen running low for whatever reason that will open at two. When the, er C is open, we are working with together New Orleans to identify two additional locations for oxygen distribution and we will make those available as soon as we have nailed them down. Um for individuals who may be homebound or who cannot get to an, er C uh for oxygen. If you are having acute symptoms related to your oxygen tank running out, you're short of breath, you're having some respiratory distress. Obviously, we want you to call 911. If you simply are in need of tanks and just can't get to a center, please call the non emergency number 50 48212222. We will be monitoring those and in partnership with Ems and others, we will try to get you a tank as soon as possible. Um And I think that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. And so we'll keep it moving. I'm gonna have uh Nate, come on forward, please. Thank you, madam Mayor. Thank you everyone for being here. It is amazing what we can do when we come together as a community. And one of the things we did yesterday, we came together for the unhoused population. I wanna really thank nor c um for stepping in being a person who could see the individuals help them in a time of need. Um Last night, nor C Health department MC IU out with my team until four o'clock in the morning on the streets, transporting people to and from the uh Rosenwald location, making sure the 117 people were off the street. They were very thankful that no one forgot them. So thank you to the entire community. Thank you for the 311 calls that you did not go unanswered. Thank you for uh NOPD for doing transport to the shelter as well. It was amazing. Uh When I looked up last night, I saw a sea of people who had hot meals, who were out of the elements who were with their animals, who were getting electricity to their cell phones and able to transition. And this morning, a gentleman said, I don't think I made it last night. That's important. So the community stepped in a large way we met the people where they were and they were happy to transition this morning either into a different sheltering process or get connected to services, which a lot of them did. On top of everything that took place last night, we had full shelters. And on top of that, we transitioned a lot of those individuals into some of those shelters. Just to let you guys know that we're gonna continue our process with everyone who's here in the room. Not just because, you know, we are repairing from a storm, but we have to continue to work there and house population as they are in need as well. I want everyone to understand that I have nothing but the greatest sympathy for every single person who stepped forward to help us out. Every person in here who was a first responder. We needed you yesterday and you showed up. I really appreciate everyone here and a special shout out to my staff. We went nonstop from 10 a.m. yesterday and I literally left from the shelter at Rosen Wall with Lauren Bambino and we came in here today to do this press conference because this is important. We did a great job yesterday, madam Air and your leadership. This went as smooth as you can possibly think. And we really want to thank the entire community for stepping up. Thank you, spirit of humility, call to serve and you can't make it up and there's no substitution for it. So we're gonna keep it going. I'm gonna now transition and ask uh members of the New Orleans City Council and then we'll be briefed by other agencies. Councilman Green. Thank you, madam mayor and madam mayor. I'd like to thank you and just express my appreciation for your putting together the team, the team that is assembled in this room, the workers who are outside, who have done so much during this storm to save lives and to keep our citizens safer. I wanna acknowledge that the last night while it was dark and while the winds were swirling in the city of New Orleans and while the rains were coming down, members of the New Orleans police Department, members of the fire department, members of nord the homeless services and strategies office, the health department and others were hard at work. You didn't see them. I happen to see them. I hope I happen to see the police cars coming throughout our district still responding as was necessary. I just wanna say that that's in the spirit of New Orleans that we had that work going on at a time that we think that everything is quiet and so much is going on. I want to express my appreciation. I want to also express my appreciation to residents. We asked you to do simple things such as bring the pets in, use the generators correctly. Make sure that you were stocked up with water and food, make sure that you reached out to someone else to help them and that's what you did. You helped save lives by doing that and also making our city safer. We asked you to use 311 to call in when you saw something that we needed to address and the 311 calls continued and issues are being addressed because of that work. So I do wanna thank you for that and to our residents. Yes, I represent district D I had an opportunity early this morning to continue to go through the district and see what was going on. I wanna let you know that we see your concerns. Yes, we see the tree that came down on Mir Street on top of a house, we see the lines that are down on Parker Street and Sugar Hill because of the trees falling down, nothing is being ignored. We've seen it all. Thank you for your 311 calls. And I wanna, you know that the departments of the city of New Orleans are gonna address those issues. We do ask for patience. My power is out. My power could be out. I express to everybody else to express. I mean, expect the worst and hope for the best. In my particular instance. I'm thinking that my power might be out for four days if necessary. It shouldn't be, but if it's out for four days, I'm prepared. I wanna watch the Saints game on Sunday. So let's get it back on, let's get it back on. I'm just telling you it's not gonna be that long but expect the worst. That's all we said. Everyone should have known that there was gonna be a potential for the power to go out and in many instances it did, but the crews were working out this morning when the wind subsided so that they could get on those bucket trucks and get those issues addressed. So I think that we're moving in the right direction in terms of recovery. I just wanna thank all who are assembled here, all who were working throughout the day and the night last night to keep our citizens safer. We have a recovery coming up but I think that we're in good hands with this recovery and in behalf of my office and my residents, I wanna thank once again this team that is assembled here today and madam mayor, thank you for assembling this team. We're moving in the right direction during this recovery. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman very much. And we also have this morning with us. Uh Councilman Freddie King. All good madam. Good afternoon, everyone. Uh I want to start off by thanking uh mayor Contre for her leadership during this entire, during this entire process. Um The response was great and I think that uh credit needs to be given to where it's due. And thank you for your leadership, madam mayor. Um The communication that passed 48 24 hours was great. Uh My cell phone and email stayed buzzing and being alerted by Iny by and water board um by the the Department of Public Works. Um And that makes a big difference when you know what to expect. And you cannot not only receive the information but distribute that, distribute that information to uh your constituents via email via text. So that was great with the communication. Um This morning, I had the opportunity to, to walk and drive the district uh from cut off to, to buy water and people were in good spirits, everyone was safe. Um There are few down trees, few down power lines, but for the most part, everyone is doing well. Um I had the occasion to, to talk to residents. They were doing well. They would help one another out raking leaves, putting um putting limbs to the curb, saw trash trucks being on the street, on the streets this morning, picking up trash, saw NOPD and the all these pa sheriff's office working together, keeping us safe. Um And also before I go, I want to give AAA big shout out to coach Mr Larry Barrett being over with Nard. Um We all think about the Nard Centers of Nard for recreation. Um But this shows that Nard is a year round season round product of this is needed 24 7 in uh in this city. And this is a, is an example of that oxygen um centers or oxygen exchange centers and, and cooling centers you don't think about nor when you think about this type of situation, but it is needed. And uh we appreciate that leadership Mr Bart, you know, and I have to say if you stay ready, you won't have to get ready and this city was ready for this storm and it shows so, so thank everyone. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Councilman Thomas. Uh I just wanna uh thank God, I know that's not fashionable uh these days, but pearl, some of us know what the alternative could have been. So if we're not, thank God and if we're not praising God, then the total opposite of the grace and blessings that we got could have been something that some of us have lived, that was much different. And then I know that's not fashionable today. I usually don't write stuff down. Uh But I'm so appreciative. There's some things that I really, and some people I really wanna highlight. Uh I wanna thank all of these agencies here. I think I've consistently said it. I've, I've been through enough of these when you couldn't communicate with people. Uh You couldn't get to central personnel. Uh Sometimes it was like who's on first, you didn't see agencies, state and city. Uh You didn't see that level of coordinations uh whether it was technical or, or just the times I've seen it when it didn't work uh as smoothly. But the thing that I really enjoyed about this and I think with Tasha Stevens, I think we were com com commissioner with commissioner. We were communicating all night. Uh uh Yeah, I have on my boots cause my son and I had on our boots last night. One of the things that my father trained me to do, uh from Betsy to Camille to George to everything you want to do when I was a kid was to accompany him while he checked on neighbors. So last night, my son and I, and we used all safety precautions with my nephew. I wouldn't let anything happen to him, but he wanted to accompany his dad and check, not only check on our neighbors but see what streets were flooding. Uh What was the level of the canal? Because when you're from New Orleans, you know, he's got to know it. It's not just about him. He's got to know that maybe if somebody is, ain't, excuse me, isn't coming, then maybe he needs to be trained so he can know what to do. Like my father trained me to know what to do. And we had a group of people who seemed to know what to do. I wanna thank the businessmen and women uh who called uh uh energy, special things uh in the 900 block of Renee Street. Uh Mr Ford is a special case who needs oxygen to survive um, after visiting and, and spending time there this morning, uh, your people really rushed to work hard, guess what? He can stay home now. Uh, he's got his power, he's got oxygen and for folk who don't know how important that is. I come from a special needs family. I, I had a sister who required special needs. So that's important. It, it, it, it's not easy for families to move around, uh, with someone who's disabled, someone who's handicapped someone who needs special medical attention. So when companies can say, hey, you know what, we know what everybody else needs. That, that was a blessing uh uh from you and your team. Uh I wanna thank uh Nikia Hooks. I'm used to being out there by myself because I don't really care. I got rescued. So I'll be out there trying to help, right? But the president of our association, Nikia Hooks and Lake Willow. The man likes to say boots on the ground. I don't know if he had on boots, but uh he was out there on the ground and there were a lot of people out there that would, that would never thank businesswoman uh Malika Honore. Some business people are not really just concerned about the city being safe for their bottom line. Uh city being dry so they can make their profit. Some really care about us. Malika Honore, businesswoman called uh Brian Egan, a businesswoman Troy Henry Gerald Butler, Otis Tucker. These are people who own businesses, very successful businesses who call to say, what can we do? That's New Orleans. Uh, may I thank you, uh, thank all of your team guys. And, uh, let's continue to thank God. Amen. Oh, God, definitely lives in us. I believe that. And, and for all of us who took an oath, so help us God. So, with that, we're gonna keep it going. I'm gonna ask Chief Gier, uh New Orleans Police Department to come and we'll then hear uh from uh Chief Samoan as well as Chief Nelson chief. All right, good morning, everybody. Um First, I wanna thank uh the mayor and give my appreciation for your leadership as everybody up here has said, and it is true. Uh City Council for being here and expressing their uh you know, gratitude to us. Um So as we move forward, our main priority was for the safety of the residents, the tourists and those communities that needed help. But when I was driving around last night, I happened to run into some police car every half a block with lights on. And yeah, and then, uh I was wondering to myself, I thought we had a shortage but uh it didn't seem that way. So I wanted to thank the uh sheriff's office also for providing that help and all the city agencies that help in this, this has been truly a collaboration and, and I really especially want to thank the men and women in the police department. It's uh one thing to come up here and tell you how everything went. But you have to remember and that goes for all the uh you know, uh public safety team that, you know, they left family members at home during this storm and through the worst of the storm while they had that, they were able to compartmentalize their thoughts and their feelings and still come out here in the rain and help other people not knowing what was happening in their home as far as power and everything else. So I just thought that this was a really true example of that. Um With that said, we will continue to work 12 hour shifts. Our men and women are actually patrolling those areas without power and uh patrolling around businesses that are vulnerable at this point in time naturally, as we transition to this phase, we hope to get back to normal. Hopefully by tomorrow, we can go back to our normal duties. But again, uh this was a prime example of the city working together. And I just want to say thank you to the men and women of the police department. Thank you. Thank you. And as I've I've been saying just throughout this event, you know, when you invest big, you see the big payoff and investing in equipment and tools and the fleet and blue lights. I mean it's real. Ok. So uh Chief Saran, please come forth and then we'll hear from Chief Nelson. Thank you, madam mayor. Um I also want to thank the mayor and, and public state. I think we, uh there was a lot of boots on the ground and that wind was blowing. Uh And so thank you to everybody. Thank you all. First responders entered you, anyone that had anybody on the ground, uh, and that will continue to have anybody on the ground. So, thank you uh for your partnership and the work you do uh for the community. Um Also, as was already mentioned, thank you to our citizens and visitors that sheltered in place. Uh You certainly um helped uh to prevent unnecessary calls for service and placing first responders at risk uh to come for you. And so, uh thank you for doing that. Um New Orleans Ems responded to 170 calls for service yesterday and paused operations for six hours due to high winds. The peak backlog resulting from that pause was 20 calls for service that was cleared by 4 a.m. by our staff. And so I especially want to thank our uh the men and women of New Orleans Ems. Uh they uh was out there, they, we had high water vehicles, we were going into uh flooded neighborhoods, getting people out, bring them to hospitals, checking on folks, uh and they cleared those calls uh within a few hours. And so thank you to our staff. Uh they did a phenomenal job and they continue to do a phenomenal job every day for this, for the city of New Orleans. So this morning, we, we are fully staffed and, and we will start to transition to normal operations, uh as we continue to uh, respond to calls and uh assess additional needs that are out there, uh post landfall and, and where we are in the recovery process, we ask that you please use extreme caution when out and about and watch for debris down power lines and other hazards. Um Most injuries in a storm occur after a storm. So please use caution um, and don't get injured, right? So just use, use be safe with everything you do. Uh while a lot of the flooding has gone down. If there is still floodwater, please don't walk in floodwater, please not drive through floodwater. Uh It's, it's very dangerous. So please, uh please wash that. Uh, if you are using a generator, I'm sure you, we've heard generator safety tips. We, we've, we've uh really focused on that the past few press conference. So please, um, keep 20 ft away from you and your neighbors homes, uh and use in a well ventilated unenclosed area. Uh We, um uh fortunately have not had any significant generator incidents yet, but uh certainly, uh we want you to stay safe, especially if you don't have power right now. So please, uh, continue to do that as was already said um uh please check on those in your neighborhood that are those friends, family loved one that need that extra care, right? Uh Check on them, make sure they're ok. Uh Get them the resources that they need or call and we'll certainly uh get the resources or help uh If they need that as was mentioned by uh uh by Doctor Avegno, if you have uh any problems um with a uh a medical device that requires power and you don't have power. There are locations that you can do uh to take care of that if you're home on home oxygen. Uh As doc said, you know, there are resources for that if you are experiencing a medical emergency as resulting from your oxygen. Uh Please call 911. We'll respond out to help you and, and figure out what your uh what your additional needs might be for any other police fire or medical emergency. Please call 911, remember uh 311 and 504821 2222 for non emergency stuff. And then please, you know, I ask that people please um continue to watch over ourselves, watch over your neighbors and others uh and, and we will recover um as we've done before. So, thank you very much. Thank you so much. Cheek, Cheek Nelson, New Orleans Fire Department. Thank you man. And uh good afternoon everyone. I'm gonna echo my public safety. Partners. And when I say partners, we really are a team in this city. Well, as far as it comes to public safety and we have a fantastic leader and leadership in the mayor. You know, everyone else uh may not see it, but she's always there. She's always supportive. She's always seeking to understand our needs and helping us to get what we need. So, thank you, man. Thank you for your, for your leadership. Oh, we plan for the worst, we hope for the best and, and as we said, I think this is the best outcome that, that, that we could have. Things went pretty smoothly across the board. The communication was excellent. Uh II, I told Colin earlier he was on every TV station, radio station. I think he was on the roof of the bullhorn, whatever it took to get the message out. You know, we talked about if the power goes out, right, how to keep it, how to keep the communication. Anyone that signed up for Noah already knows that they were well informed. As soon as we talked about it, it was going out on. No already. So kudos to the nose up and to the Noah lo already team. The communications were excellent from the fire department side. Uh We responded to 245 incidents over the last 24 hours. That's almost double our normal call. I can count uh major incidents. We had that three alarm fire before the storm. Only 11 alarm fire right before the storm, uh or early in the storm, about 630 on Chippewa Street, which seemed to be uh an electrical dry issue. Really. No storm related fires, no large fires during the storm, which is excellent and, and great to hear. Our firefighters were able to focus on getting out in the public, helping, assisting uh helping stranded motorist, uh getting people out of their houses that need to be transported to safe accommodation. So all to know everything went well. We only had three calls for carbon monoxide alarms, which is great. Uh Currently we have six stations that are generators so much like you, we're still dealing with the power outages, but we're confident that energy will get that restored very quickly uh with the power outages, right? We talked about this, but we're gonna reinforce it again about those generators, right. Be cautious about the carbon monoxide. Make sure they're at least 20 ft from your home when they run out of fuel, let them sit for 20 minutes so they can cool down before you go to put that gas in there. Right. We don't want to put gasoline in the hot generator and spark a fire and have someone injure themselves. So just take those precautions. Yeah, another additional thing, right? We talked about when the, when the stoplights are out, right? If a stoplight is out, it's a four way, it it's a four way stop. Slow down. Take your time, be courteous right to everyone else. Everyone's trying to, trying to get out and do different things, but we don't want to have any injuries or any accidents while the stoplights are out. So just be cautious, be nice to everyone and be safe. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. And we're gonna keep the updates, uh, moving forward and I'm going, uh, to ask, uh, major uh Silas for um any updates from the sheriff's office. Good morning. Uh Thank you, madam mayor. Thank you to the leadership of the city. Thank you to the leadership of s of Sheriff Hudson. She truly has a heart for this city, a heart for this community and a heart for the staff that she uh manages. We want to give a special, thank you to the men and women of, of the Orleans Parish Sheriff's office. We were at full staffing over the past few days they showed up, showed out especially those people that have been housed at the Department of Corrections with our residents that were evacuated away from their families this entire time. So we give them a special. Thank you. Um The other first responders in the city, the partnership, the collaboration that's been there has been phenomenal. It's greatly appreciated, it's long overdue. Um Just a couple of quick updates. The Sheriff's office uh did take in five arrestee over the past 24 hours. One was released uh early this morning. The other four are waiting their uh time in uh virtual court today. Um We are working through the logistics of returning the 154 residents that we evacuated to the Department of Corrections. Uh, but we are currently on uh generator power. So we're working through what that looks like once uh power has been restored, we don't wanna pull the trigger too early on that. Uh Other than that, uh the sheriff's office will continue to have our officers out there during the day today and tonight, uh assisting the New Orleans Police Department and we will scale that back beginning in the morning. But thank you for everything. Thank you. We're gonna get an update uh from Carl Fasold 911311. Then we'll uh transition into the infrastructure side of things. First, I do want to thank the mayor and the city council for the support of the OP CD. Without that confidence and support, we wouldn't have been able to provide the assistance to, to all of our visitors and our citizens who have called us over the last 24 hours. So thank you very much to everybody. 311 will continue expanded hours until 10 pm this evening and then reopen at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning for phone calls. However, remember you can use the website accessible via nola gov or OP CD L a.gov or the jazz tech spot by texting to 311. Yes, to enter your request at any time. We did get the expected surge of 911 calls last night. Between six and 10, we got 403 between 10 and midnight, we got 402 all of which were answered or I say all 99% plus were answered in 15 seconds or less. And those six hours represent what would be in a normal day, 80% of our call volume. So it, it came in pretty hot and heavy when the weather got bad as we expected, we didn't have any issues with call delivery through our systems. Once the caller was able to get a dial tone and dial, we remain on emergency power at this time because just like everybody else, we got problems with the grid in our neighborhood too. We've been advised that AT&T vo VoIP customers, U verse home telephony. Customers may not be able to dial 911 in New Orleans if so, they should use the alternate phone number of 5046713600. And I'll give my usual reminder that if you call 911, please stay on the phone until one of my emergency communication specialist talks to you. If you get the voice greeting, it's because there is no one immediately available. Alarms will go off in the center. We know that you're on hold and we will get to your call as soon as we can. If you hang up and call back, you put yourself at the end of the line and cause additional delay in us getting the help to you that you need. So please use 911 for emergencies call and stay on the line and we will get the help coming. Use 311 or the non emergency number 504821 2222 for non emergencies and we will still get the help coming to you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Carl shifting now uh in to infrastructure. I'm going to ask uh my director of the Department of Public Works. Uh Rick come for Rick Hathaway and you will hear from Park and Parkways as well as sanitation. Thank you, madam mayor. I thank you City Council for your support and leadership. Uh The DPW crews are presently working uh in the public right away right now clearing debris. Uh We ask that the traveling public remain cautious uh when proceeding through these areas, uh be aware of the construction vehicles and try to stay clear. Uh The DPW maintenance crews will return to cleaning, catch basins, drain, pipe, flushing and asphalt patching. Once the uh debris removal and clearing is complete, the DPW signal shop staff is presently assessing damage in areas around the city concerning the traffic signal system. Uh will continue to do so until complete and uh begin. Uh the repairs of that system. I would also like to say that, uh, we have recently issued two notices to proceed to private contractors, uh, to begin work, uh, repairing and rehabilitating the traffic signal system. Uh So the public will see upgrades as far as the system is concerned uh, over the next few months. Also, uh, many areas of the city are under construction right now. Uh, barricades and signage are placed uh, for safety and to secure the construction sites. We ask that no one go around these barricades uh for their own safety and also uh a reminder for everyone to keep calling 311 and to report the issues. I would also like to thank the staff of the department of Public works for uh the recent days in preparing for the storm and also their continued work uh today and beyond, uh taking care of the damages. Thank you so much. Thank you so much and we're going to keep this going. I'm gonna ask Michael Kam Park and Parkways to come forward. Thank you. Thank you, madam mayor. Thank you City Council. Um Good, good afternoon, parks and parkways through forestry and grounds maintenance divisions have been responding to calls for service and surveying the right of way since 630 this morning. And I'd like to thank them and uh their continued hard work along with our other infrastructure teams, 11 calls for service came overnight and that number is ticked up to about 65 as of 11 a.m. Uh mostly minor debris in the right of way. Uh Several public and private trees have been down. Um But again, the vast majority of our calls for service have been um for small vegetative debris, limbs and small trees. Uh The public is reminded um, to report right of way debris 2311 and also to avoid and report all down power lines. And just to put um the magnitude of this storm in perspective, our teams are completing our survey work um and should be complete by the end of the day with our forestry teams. Uh continuing to respond for calls for service. And tomorrow we'll transition to debris, clean up and hope to be back up to normal operations by uh Saturday or Monday. Thank you. Thank you and we'll keep it going. Uh Matt Torrey who serves as our Director of the Department of Sanitation. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you City Council for uh providing the resources to allow uh department of Sanitation to effectively respond to the storm. Uh So, in partnership with our fellow agencies, Parks and Parkways Public works, sanitation has been focused on right of way clearing and pushing since day daylight this morning. Um We'll continue to make sure the right of way is free of debris and then transition to debris removal uh across all neighborhoods in the city again. Hoping to have that done uh by the end of this weekend and transition back to our normal operations. We did as a city resume uh trash and recycling collection today as a reminder to all residents, we continue to operate uh on a modified schedule running one day behind. So today, we may collect or collecting Wednesday locations. Tomorrow. We will collect Thursday locations. And on Saturday, we will collect Friday locations. We are aware that some residents uh did not have their carts out as early as 5 a.m. when we started uh trash collection this morning, I encourage you to please call 311 to report that Miss collection and we will do everything we can uh to come and collect uh that location within the next 24 hours uh to make sure that's taken care of. Uh We also encourage residents in, in the spirit of partnership as we're undertaking this clean up effort to bag uh rake bag leaves and small debris that can be set out along with your trash next to your city issue, trash car for a collection on your schedule collection day for larger debris, items related to the storm uh such as tree or construction materials. Uh residents should call 311 and submit a storm debris collection service request which will be fulfilled by the Department of Sanitation. And again, we will work uh expeditiously to get all storm debris off the ground. Thank you so much, Matt. All right. And we're gonna keep it going. Um I'm going to ask our director of the Sewage and Water Board, Kasan Corbin to come. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mayor and City Council for your leadership and your support during this event. And thank you Colin for having our back. Uh You know, he's, he, he stands up for us any, any chance he can and he explains things that sometimes there are some not so, not so simple to go to explain to the public. So, thank you so much. I think it's important to acknowledge that last night was a very challenging night for us. Um uh really a record rain. We had an intense rain as, as high as four inches per hour. That's a lot of rain. That's an over overwhelming event that truly would have overwhelmed any system anywhere in the United States. And you add the complexity of a mechanical system in this city, you will have challenges, there's no way around it. And it's just, you know, we, we talked last yesterday as a matter of fact about it, an event that's gonna overwhelm our, our system that indeed happened. But despite that fact, I think many things yesterday worked and I really have to give a huge shout out to my staff who just uh all hands on deck all night long, just making good decisions that really paid such dividend for us in terms of the, all these good things that happened at the same time, we know for a fact that some things didn't go right and we own up to it. And you know, I'm gonna share some of those things uh with you in terms of what happened. Not so many details, I'll avail myself later, but also to talk about how we're rec recovering and some of the things that we need you to do to help us uh recover and restore in, in some instances so quickly. Um You know, we have uh multiple sources of power that we cobble together to drive our pump, especially in the old city, you know, and that really adds a lot of complications. M Truman was president and, and, you know, obviously, we look forward to the day like, you know, which is 2025 where we have one source of power that's gonna drive all the pumps in the old city. And, you know, then we'll be talking about this much less obviously. But so we had one situation in uh uh DPS 12. It's a one pump station where we had a glitch there. We had a electrical situation that uh obviously set us back, but we responded again because we were prepared. We were staffed, we were monitoring closely and we rebounded and there were, we had a little bit of a setback in terms of, you know, continuing to pump, but we bounced back. Uh We had an issue in DPS 14 and this is New Orleans east where we lost power, we rely on energy for power. Um And when we, when that happened, we, we started our backup generator and that performed well. And then we resumed uh uh uh pumping and I'm sharing these things with you because there were some situations where there were some interruptions but all in, all in all we, we, we were able to respond and we were able to continue the operations. Um One major situation that happened, we lost uh power from our five em DS. And uh these are five large uh diesel generators that, uh, you know, help us in, uh, in terms of uh one of the sources of power. And we lo we lost all five at once because of one auxiliary uh equipment that, that supports all five at the same time. And because of that, we lost six pumps and uh all together in, in DPS, 12 and six. So we had two pumps in each of those uh stations that were uh powered by the AM DS. Uh, that took us a while. We started the M DS, which they started over, uh, and they were fine, but then they, they went back down and then obviously that, that causes a lot of delays and interruptions. And finally we moved the power to T four which had performed very well. So, um, that probably was one of our major uh setbacks yesterday. Um We also had some issues with one of the frequency changers that we used to power some stations, uh some pumps and that we recovered as well. That was in DP S3, 4 and seven, we had one pump in each of those that went down and then again, we resumed. Um So that was in, in terms of uh drainage, in terms of drinking water, we have no issues, no interruptions and you can drink away no issues with drinking water, consume as much water as you want in terms of drinking. So, um having said that then we did have an issue with one of our two of the larger uh sewer stations pumping stations, we have 84 stations across the city and most of them pump into one of two of those uh stations, one we called uh station D went down, it's in, in Gentilly and we had an uh a fire and an electric fire in within the system that just rendered it an operational. So, um there's really no easy way to just substitute those two pumps that run that um we have a smaller pump that just keeps the flow going. But uh today, uh I will respond to that. We have uh rented about 16 V trucks uh that we have outsourced and then just to keep the, the level of the waste water down, that's why we've been asking since last night. Uh our customers residential and businesses to be thoughtful about how much water you consume, if you can push off a large amount of water consumption, that would be very helpful, just give us time to recover. And uh we're hoping to do that either by the end of the day or maybe tomorrow, we're looking for some interim solution and obviously a permanent one at one point. So, um we ask you for, you know, your thoughtfulness and conservation the best you can. Um and with that, uh thank you very much. Thank you so much Casan and uh hearing from Cassan, it really does uh validate and underscore our need as a city and a community to continue to invest uh in our utility and we definitely will. Uh but there's a reason to, and even as it relates to that 29 million, you know, in terms of that second phase of the power complex, this is what we're talking about. You can't make it up no matter who the mayor is, no matter who the city council is. These existing conditions are real. We have real solutions and not only solutions, we have uh these solutions being implemented now. So again, we need to continue to put our resources uh where we can uh definitely focusing on the second phase of that power uh com a game changer for the city of New Orleans. And when I mentioned a utility in terms of infrastructure that we're relying on since Truman was president, it's a fact. And then you uh couple that with just a lack of routine maintenance over decades, this is what you get. But when you have a team that's focused, facing challenges to fix them, you have results and you also have solutions that we're continuing uh to implement. So with that, um I'm gonna ask our President Ceo of Energy New Orleans to come forth and then we're gonna hear from RT A and we'll close it out with hospitality partners. Thank you, ma thank you, Mayor and thank you council members. Uh Thank you for the public and the media that are getting the information and the facts out to our customers. Um As of a few minutes ago, we're down to good news. We're down to 47,000 customers out. I know it's not good news if you're out, but it is coming down and it is important that you start to see some progress. You will note more and more progress throughout the day. We have a number of resources out there on the ground already. 860 or so that are starting to restore power. And I want to explain what the public should expect where you're gonna see some restorations today. You're also gonna see some kind of numbers go up and down as restorations occur. So don't get nervous if you have power and then it goes out for a minute. Part of what they're doing is switching so that they can bring more customers back on uh We are also doing damage assessment. At, at this point, we will be complete with our damage assessment. Uh By the end of the day today, again, we cannot restore completely until we've done all our damage assessments. Uh But we're doing both simultaneously. We're at 45% now, uh of our damage assessment. That's good news. We'll have it complete by the end of the day. And as we go, we look at customers that are priority customers. I say that because we're getting some off. Um, but what we're gonna do is look at, um, you know, the nursing homes that and, and hospitals and others and our first responders to make sure that they're back on, uh, and their priority. Um Finally, our estimated restoration times will come out as soon as we are more. We have completed our damage assessment. Once damage assessment is done, we're gonna be able to put out estimated restoration times that are gonna be along the lines of something. If you wanna look to make sure you have on the app, if you have power, um, you can go on the app and see when your, your restoration time is or if you have powers to that, if you need to stay out for a little bit longer, you can do that. Um But I want to thank everyone for being safe. We had folks out last night also that we're working through the night, at least conducting preliminary damage assessments so that we could get busy and started early this morning. Please be patient with us. Please practice safety. If you go see a downed line, make sure you report it. Um, don't go near it your life and anyone else's life is not worth that. So, thank you again. We love the, the technology as well. Not having to rely on a water burger. We don't have them anyway. We don't have many. So with that, we're gonna keep it going. RT am Lana Edwards Hankins. Good morning mayor. And thank you um so much for your leadership during this event. Um It's, it's been amazing to watch this um from a layperson now, CEO of an agency watch that transition. Um Good morning. We've restored uh limited bus service um for, for our city, the street cars are still down. We're working to secure that and restore that. We anticipate that will come on shortly as the power grid rig comes on. I wanna encourage all of our community members as we start to clear debris to not put the debris on, on the street car tracks because we do need to keep them clear. Um Ferry service will be restored once the coast guard gives us that approval, we anticipate once that happens, we can um uh put those vehicles in uh to the river. Um And we do have bus service. The 103 supports the ferry. So we are providing service there paratransit is available. However, our uh, landlines um, that service that are, are down. So we've, we've worked through a workaround. So, but we're asking our constituencies to be patient with us because instead of taking five calls at a time, we may only be able to take one call at a time. And, um, last but not least, I do want to thank the staff at the RT A. Um, our, our men and women worked tire tirelessly yesterday to continue service and then was up early in the morning, clearing the debris and with that, um I'm, I would like to thank you guys. Thank you so much and we're going to uh wrap it up uh with our hospitality partner. Um Walt Leger from New Orleans and Company. Thank you mayor and thank you uh to members of the city council as well for your leadership. Uh uh Thank you Colin Arnold and, and the whole team. It's been an exceptional response and as has been said, many times, excellent communication, which has been so helpful. We're grateful to all the visitors to our city who heeded our advice and warnings and all the warnings of the leaders here and stayed out of harm's way. Um Major hotels are all operating downtown. Uh We're continuing to welcome people. Uh We're grateful to see that the airport escaped um with minimal damage and is operational, receiving flights today and restoring uh service as we go forward. I know that major cultural attractions across the city are open and operating. They were delayed opening this morning, but they are open now. Uh Louisiana Children's Museum, Ottoman Aquarium and Insectarium, uh World War Two Museum all up and operational. It's a real testament to this city that um that major operations can be back up and running by noon the following day after major storm. And I think it's a reminder that the infrastructure and investments that have been made are working um And that we are able to continue to welcome people as they come in over the weekend. Um Updates will continue to be provided at New orleans.com/updates. Um grateful uh to the team at New Orleans and company who's been communicating with our customers and partners across the country throughout the night. And uh this morning to help them understand what's actually going on here on the ground. Uh so that no events in coming days will have to be delayed or missed. And so, uh with that, we're just grateful for all the first responders who uh protected our community last night and for the leadership of uh the mayor, the mayor's office and the city council. Thank you. Thank you so much. And what we are to do before ending, I do want to bring up our uh CEO uh Larry Barabino of Nord C just to give a recap in terms of er CS emergency resource centers. And the like, again, shifting to uh responding to the needs right now. Absolutely good afternoon. I thank you, madam mayor council members, you know, Nord is excited to be a partner at the table with all of the entities and agencies to help. Um make sure that things move through in terms of an emergency. Nord is embedded in emergency preparedness plan with the city of New Orleans. You know, as we look at Nord and we think about recreations, you know, we offer far more services to the residents of our great city than recreations. You know, with that, as we open up the Rosen Ward emergency shelter in partnership with the health department and homeless services and no se to ensure that residents were able to come off the streets during the storm and have somewhere safe to be doing that time. That's one role we play. But as we're transitioning now to our emergency resource centers, we're opening four centers throughout the city to ensure that anybody in those areas uh that's without power can have the opportunity to go to those uh resource centers and you know, have a cool place to be charged their emerge their emergency medical devices as well as their cell phones or anything like that. However, we're looking forward to where we open all of our facilities at the regular time. So all of our no rec centers will be open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. starting tomorrow. Um and our services will be restored and we asked those, you know, right now, we're in football season, one of the biggest concerns as our staff is out now assessing our properties is to ensure that and, and make sure that we know that the biggest challenge that we look for doing stones with high winds, our high mass ball field lights. And we asked our community that's involved in our football leagues, our high schools to know that we're working on diligently to check out and examine our lights at our parks and playgrounds and our stadiums to make sure that we can return things and activities back to normal. Thank you, madam. Thank you so much uh Larry and so the city of New Orleans City Hall uh will resume normal operations on tomorrow. Uh We just uh continue to ask uh residents to just uh stay uh alert, you know, for our ne uh nola red alerts and the like uh and we're just focusing on a full recovery. And so with that, uh Mr Terry, thank you. Thank you for that. And so I wanna thank you for what you did yesterday. All of our collaboration and partners have a long day. So did all of you in the rain in the water. So we thank you for your continuous coverage, your messaging that's important to your city as well because it is your city. And when I get an opportunity to talk to the mayor privately about media and coverage, she knows that this is your city. So what you did yesterday and what you continue to do is appreciate it and we want to let you know that uh while you're here. So with that, uh we will conclude our press conference for today. We will any other updates and Mr Collin will and Terry, great job for allowing our folks to have a seat. This is a big deal. It's a long, you know, a lot of information, you know. So, thank you for that. All right. Thank you so much.