FROM THE SCHOOL WEBSITE 8/31/08:
HURRICANE UPDATE: LSUA has upgraded the alert status for Hurricane Gustav to a WARNING. Please monitor this web site and local news for updates.
In order to provide for optimal safety for all concerned and as a result of Hurricane Gustav, all offices will be closed and all classes at Louisiana State University at Alexandria will be cancelled on Tuesday, September 2, 2008 and Wednesday, September 3, 2008. This applies to the main campus at Highway 71 South, the Allied Health Building, the Alexandria Museum of Art in downtown Alexandria and the Business Education Center and the Learning Center for Rapides Parish.
=============================================================================
SOURCE: http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080828/NEWS01/808280343/1002
"It's also possible we could use a new facility built in Alexandria," the governor said, even though it is not technically ready for occupancy. He said he believes it is "completed sufficiently" to be utilized if the 68,000 other spaces are filled.
============================================================================
SOURCE: http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080829/NEWS01/808290359
Cenla could bear brunt of evacuations
By Tom Bonnette • tbonnette@thetowntalk.com • August 29, 2008
Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Louisiana Gulf Coast three years ago today, sent tens of thousands of New Orleans evacuees to hurricane shelters in neighboring communities across South Louisiana in search of higher ground.
Many who sought refuge in South Louisiana in 2005 might end up in Central Louisiana should Tropical Storm Gustav develop into a powerful hurricane and follow a trajectory similar to Katrina.
A new state law forbidding hurricane evacuation shelters below the Interstate 10 corridor in the event of a Category 3 hurricane or stronger leaves Alexandria-Pineville as the closest metro area above Interstate 10 that could accommodate a large influx of evacuees.
Shelters would not operate in much of Baton Rouge and Lafayette, as well as all of the Houma-Thibodeaux region and Lake Charles -- all of which saw massive migrations of refugees after Katrina.
As of late Thursday, the National Weather Service was projecting that the storm would move into the Gulf of Mexico by Sunday and head toward the Louisiana coast with an expected landfall of Tuesday morning.
If Gustav were to strike the Louisiana Gulf Coast early next week, the Alexandria area would be first in line to accept evacuees, said Sonya Wiley-Gremillion, executive director of the Rapides Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness
"We are going to get the brunt of it. As our general population shelters start to fill up, we will start to fill up shelters to the north of us in the Shreveport and Monroe area," she said.
She cautioned that the situation remains fluid but that in a worse-case scenario -- a powerful storm causing a mass evacuation in the New Orleans area -- Rapides Parish shelters alone might take in as many as 15,000 evacuees.
That number doesn't count 3,500 evacuees who could be housed at the recently completed shelter at Louisiana State University at Alexandria.
The 230,000-square-foot LSU AgCenter shelter, which was completed two weeks ago, is functional but not yet equipped to accommodate evacuees, said John Barnett, regional AgCenter director.
"We thought it would be equipped by November," Barnett said. "We thought that we would have a couple of months to get it ready, not two weeks."
Currently, the shelter has electrical power and running water, but that's about it, Barnett said.
There are no beds, furniture, kitchen supplies, toiletries or other items that would be needed to house people. The shelter would be turned over to the Louisiana Department of Social Services in the event of a hurricane evacuation.
On Thursday, Gov. Bobby Jindal requested federal help to assist in preparing the shelter to accept hurricane evacuees.
State officials were on hand Thursday at LSUA readying the gymnasium at the school's fitness center to be used as a special needs shelter.
Wiley-Gremillion said a meeting will take place this morning at the Rapides Parish Police Jury office to be attended by agencies that are assisting in hurricane shelter plans, including the Red Cross and representatives from local municipalities.