Gulf States Come Together to Work on Comprehensive Hurricane Plan

With only a month until hurricane season begins, leaders from Mississippi are meeting with neighboring states to discuss a comprehensive hurricane plan. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports.

This year’s Gulf States Hurricane Conference taking place in Biloxi, includes representatives from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The inclusion of all three states in discussing a comprehensive hurricane plan is an attempt to recognize just how interconnected the states are in dealing with and responding to hurricanes. Alabama Governor Bob Riley,

“The more we understand how to cooperate, how to work together, and have this comprehensive strategic plan, then it allows us to do a better job for our citizens.”

That comprehensive plan is expected to include new contra flow procedures for major evacuation routes such as 1-10, which runs through all three states. As well as better ways to handle the return of out-of-state evacuees once the hurricane threat has passed. But Governor Barbour says the main point of the conference is to better prepare and train the first responders on the scene,

“And the way we help them is to make sure they’ve got good training, help them make sure they’ve got a good plan. They are the first line. It’s not Washington, it’s not FEMA, it’s not even Jackson.”

Governor Barbour says one of the biggest needs yet unmet is the construction of a survivable, inner operable communication system. The Governor had proposed that the system, which would cost an estimated 140 million dollars state-wide, be paid for by hazard mitigation funds but the federal government rejected that proposal.