As Hurricane Francine approaches the Louisiana coast, city of New Orleans officials are urging residents to stay in their homes. But as of late this morning, some homeless New Orleanians were still out in the elements.

“Now is the time to hunker down,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a Wednesday (Sept. 11) press briefing on the storm.

This message was reiterated by almost every department head who appeared at the briefing. Residents should shelter in place, especially from 6 p.m. to midnight, when Hurricane Francine is expected to make a close pass to the west of the city.

As of 2 p.m. the storm was expected to make landfall near Morgan City in the evening as a strong Category 1, possibly Category 2, hurricane. It is expected to weaken rapidly as it moves inland. But forecasters are warning that it will still pose a significant danger to New Orleans as it passes just to the city’s west late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. 

“Get indoors and get off the roads,” said Colin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

But less than a mile away, under the Pontchartrain Expressway overpass, at least a few dozen people prepared to endure the storm outside. City officials have offered transport to shelters, and the city has opened up an emergency shelter at the NORD Rosenwald Center.

Victor Tate, who is currently unhoused, said Wednesday morning that he had not yet been approached with offers of assistance.

This is Tate’s first hurricane since moving down to New Orleans. He said he would like to ride it out in a shelter.

“I’m hoping and praying that I can get into a shelter before the storm comes,” Tate said. “I don’t have a tent. I don’t have an umbrella, nothing to prepare myself for it.”

As Hurricane Francine approaches the Louisiana coast, threatening New Orleans with dangerous winds and rain, Victor Tate camps out under the Pontchartrain Expressway. Credit: Katie Jane Fernelius / Verite News

Will Selmon, who was also preparing to hunker down under the overpass, said he was choosing to stay outdoors for the storm. Asked why, he said he worried about the conditions at crowded homeless shelters, specifically citing drug use and threats of violence. 

“I suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome,” said Selmon, who was preparing to hunker down under the overpass. “I don’t need all that.”

Early this year, a “point-in-time” count by UNITY of Greater New Orleans, the city’s primary homeless services provider, found that among 1,454 homeless people in Jefferson and Orleans parishes, 484 were unsheltered. Nate Fields, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeless Services and Strategies, said on Wednesday that the city is making progress getting many of those people off the streets. 

While Fields didn’t have an exact number, he said that they were able to transport almost 150 people to shelters across the city. 

Fields said that he and his team have been driving around the city to try to make sure that all unhoused people have a place to shelter. He said that he personally drove by the underpass multiple times this morning with his lights on, hoping to transport people to shelters, but only a few people took him up on it. 

Just before Wednesday’s press conference, city employees were driving through Duncan Plaza — the park directly across from City Hall where small groups of homeless people often camp out — urging people to get inside and offering transportation to a shelter. 

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Video by Katie Jane Fernelius/Verite News

“I don’t think that people really get it until they start seeing the winds and gusts pick up,” Fields said. “But I’m not going to stop until the mayor tells me to get off the street.”

Time is running short. Fields said that he and his departmental staff are able to transport people to shelters until winds reach a speed of 50 miles per hour – the same speed at which ambulances are unable to safely navigate city streets.

Fields and his staff use city vehicles to transport people to shelters. But he said that they also have 15 passenger vans, a medic unit with wheelchair access, and paratransit available with EMS. Ambulance, police and sheriff’s vehicles are also able to transport people.

As of midday, Fields said that all shelters except the temporary emergency shelter at the NORD Rosenwald Center on South Broad Street were full. However, the city has other recreational facilities on stand by, ready to use as shelters, should it need additional capacity. 

Outside the Rosenwald Center, which by late morning had about 50 people taking shelter, residents prepared for the coming storm.

Jerome Alexander said he is sheltering at the Rosenwald Center because he is homeless. He is currently waiting to be approved for housing through UNITY of Greater New Orleans.

“I heard it was a Category 2, so I’m not nervous, trying to prepare myself,” Alexander said. He is preparing for the hurricane by “taking my time, looking around, [relaxing] and [trying] to stay calm.”

City agencies, Entergy prepare for the storm

In 2021, Hurricane Ida caused severe damage to New Orleans’ power infrastructure, cutting off all major transmission lines into the city. A citywide blackout left residents in the dark — and the blazing late August and early September heat — for 10 days. Francine is expected to be a much weaker storm, so a repeat appears unlikely. But officials have still told residents to prepare for the possibility of extended power outages as the storm passes. 

At the City Hall press conference on Wednesday, Entergy New Orleans CEO Deanna Rodriguez said that she and other Entergy officials were remaining in the New Orleans Emergency Operations Center with city officials to assist in the response. But she added that the company has already done work in advance with the storm to reduce the possibility of major outages, trimming tree limbs that pose a threat to power lines.

“Yesterday, our crews patrolled 48 line miles and performed vegetation mitigation work at 109 sites,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said that Entergy had augmented its team statewide with an additional 2,000 line workers, 400 damage assessors and 1,000 vegetation crews in advance of the storm. But Rodriguez noted that although crews were on standby, in the event of an outage, they would not be able to work on power lines or transmitters until winds fell below 30 miles per hour. 

“We will get out there as soon as we can,” Rodriguez said. 

Ghassan Korban, head of the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board, said that the agency was in “emergency response mode” as the hurricane approached, noting that 90 of its 99 pumps are operational and ready to be used. 

“There was a little confusion this morning,” Korban noted, referring to the SWB dashboard that showed two pumps as being offline, as reported by Fox 8 News. “That is a dry weather station, and not having those two pumps will really have no impact on our ability to manage that rain event that is coming our way.”

Ghassan Korban, head of the Sewerage & Water Board, said on Wednesday, Sept. 11, that the agency is doing everything it can to guard against interrupted drainage, water and sewerage service for the city. Credit: Katie Jane Fernelius / Verite News

While most of the focus was on drainage, Korban also made a point to note that his agency was also responsible for providing drinking water and managing wastewater. 

“We’re doing everything we can to keep those services uninterrupted during and after the storm,” Korban said. 

Lona Edwards Hankins, CEO of the Regional Transit Authority, said that the transit agency suspended both ferry and streetcar service by midday Wednesday and planned to suspend bus service beginning at 3 p.m. Public transit will remain suspended for the duration of the storm. 

Karl Fasold, the director of the Orleans Parish Communications District, which operates the 911 system for the city, said that the office was fully staffed and prepared to route both 911 and 311 callers to needed city services. 

Fasold urged residents to call 311, rather than 911, to report any non-life-threatening flooding or damage, as well as to request transport to shelters for those in need. He said that residents should call 911 for all emergencies, including those involving animals – noting that the SPCA will be able to go out into the city and help any animals in danger until winds reach a speed of 50 miles per hour. 

Fasold also said that his office was currently answering 96% of calls in 15 seconds or less, far above the national standard and an improvement from earlier this year. Still, he told residents not to be discouraged if, initially, they have trouble reaching an emergency dispatcher.  

“As a reminder, if you call 911, please stay on the line until my emergency communications specialist answers the phone and talks to you,” Fasold said. He added that if a caller hangs up and calls back, it will move them further back in the queue. It also creates additional phone traffic as dispatchers call back all abandoned calls. 

Verite News reporters John Gray, Tristan Baurick and Bobbi-Jeanne Misick contributed to this story.

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Katie Jane Fernelius reports on the local government for Verite. Prior to joining Verite, she was an independent journalist and producer. Over the course of her career, she’s reported for and worked...