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Department of Homeland Security
Senior Leadership Brief
Tropical Depression Gustav
6:00 p.m. (EDT), September 4, 2008
Updates in Red
INFORMATION DERIVED FROM FEDERAL DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES OPEN SOURCES
Summary:
At 4:00 p.m. (EDT), the center of Tropical Depression Gustav was located near 15 miles north-northeast
of Saint Louis, Missouri. Maximum sustained winds are near 15 mph with higher gusts.
There have been 19 confirmed fatalities related to Gustav (Louisiana chief medical officer confirmed 18
and Mississippi Medical Examiner confirmed one).
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DHS – National Operations Center (NOC):
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Federal Leadership meetings: The 9:00 a.m. (EDT) FEMA Future Operations Teleconference,
12:00 p.m. (EDT) FEMA Hanna VTC, 1:00 p.m. (EDT) Gustav VTC, 2:30 p.m. (EDT) PM
FEMA Press Conference, and 4:00 p.m. (EDT) Senior Leadership Group (SLG) Conference Call
have all occurred.
Requests for Federal Assistance: Missouri and Iowa received amendments to their Emergency
Disaster Declarations. On September 4, 2008, the Governor of Mississippi requested a revised
Major Disaster Declaration as a result of Hurricane Gustav. The Governor is specifically
requesting Individual Assistance for 16 counties and Hazard Mitigation statewide; Public
Assistance is not being requested until Preliminary Damage Assessments (PDAs) are conducted.
Presidential Emergency Declarations: Presidential Emergency Declarations signed for Alabama,
Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.
Presidential Disaster Declarations: Louisiana’s major Disaster Declaration was approved.
Federal Response:
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)/NRCC/Regions III, IV and VI:
FEMA NRCC:
 The National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) is activated at Level I (including all ESFs)
providing 24/7 coverage.
 Priorities: evacuee re-entry, infrastructure restoration, public health / medical support, debris and
hazardous materials removal, and damage assessments.
 Priorities for Gustav Recovery include: focusing on electricity restoration efforts, overflight of
transmission lines, restoration efforts for oil and natural gas, damage assessments for water,
reopening rail lines and secondary roads, power and telecommunication restoration, and fuel
delivery to Baton Rouge medical facilities.
 Planning is being coordinated for the ingress/return of evacuees based upon damage assessments
and re-entry.
 Initiating actions to ensure that staff, teams and commodities are in place and operational in the
Gulf Coast and Atlantic States; validating GAP requirements with States and ERT-A; providing
logistical support to States, conducting Preliminary Damage Assessments (PDAs) and supporting
the re-entry process for Louisiana evacuees.
 Coordinated damage assessment over flights of impacted areas of Louisiana to assist with power
restoration efforts.
 Initiating a multi-agency comprehensive feeding plan, transitional sheltering plan, and expanding
services in congregate shelters.
FEMA Region III:
 The Regional Response Coordination Center (RRCC) is operating at Level II from 7:00 a.m. until
7:00 p.m. EDT.
 Region III is maintaining Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) support for
Gustav, but has shifted response focus and priority of effort to coordination and planning for TS
Hanna.
FEMA Region IV:
 The Regional Response Coordination Center (RRCC) is operating at Level I
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Priorities: shifting some focus to TS Hanna and east coast states, preparing resources for possible
east coast support, continuing monitoring re-entry of LA evacuees.
ESF-1 Evacuation Team Liaison Activated at RRCC.
ERT-A and IMAT Teams are currently in Region IV.
FEMA Region VI:
 Region VI RRCC is operating at Level 1 in support of Tropical Depression Gustav operations
 National Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Tennessee Task Force 1 deployed to Houma, LA.
 Priorities for Region VI include ensuring the safety of personnel, supporting State efforts to
return Louisiana evacuees, establishing a JFO in Austin to support EM 3290, and consolidating
and monitoring Texas shelter and mass care numbers.
 Region VI is coordinating daily re-entry conference calls with the host states, existing JFOs from
previous events, and other FEMA Regions.
 Ten Individual Assistance (IA) Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) teams will be shared
between Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
 Five Public Assistance PDA teams have been identified for Louisiana; PDA teams are on standby
for Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):
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Coordinating with states to repatriation of evacuees with medical needs.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE):
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USACE expects minor to moderate flooding along rivers in LA and AR due to Gustav, with most
rivers not cresting until September 4 or 5.
Significant flooding is likely in the central Louisiana - Baton Rouge and southern Mississippi
areas from September 4-7.
U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA):
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Air operations resumed at Lake Charles (LCH), Mobile (MOB), Beaumont/Port Arthur (BPT),
and Louis Armstrong New Orleans (MSY) airports.
Railroad
 Burlington National Santa Fe (BNSF)- Lafayette to Avondale: Tentative restoration of service,
1500, September 4
 Canadian National (CN)- McComb Subdivision: Tentative restoration of services is, 1200,
September 8
 CSX- Bay St. Louis to New Orleans: Under inspection, observed missing trackage between miles
posts (MP) 769.0 and 789.0. Mobile to MP 762.6: Inspections made with two washouts were
found at MP 761.2 for 500 feet by 1 to 2 feet deep. Rails found 3 to 4 feet out of alignment.
Similarly a washout 3 to 5 feet deep was found from MP 762.1 to MP 762.6.
 NOCG- Tentative restoration of rail operations on Friday, September 5
 New Orleans Public Belt (NOPB)- Almonaster Avenue lift bridge, Industrial Canal: Approach
tracks are washed out, 200 feet long on CSX side and 100 feet on NOPB side, up to 8 or 10 feet
deep.
 PONO (Port of New Orleans)- Almonaster Bridge: USCG removed two barges from against the
bridge the evening of September, pending removal of third barge on September 4
NORTHCOM:
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There are 45 active MAs for GUSTAV
National Guard Bureau (NGB):
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The National Guard Bureau reports 16,437 National Guard personnel are deployed in various
missions supporting Gustav efforts.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
 Airborne Imagery and Reconnaissance/Surveillance
o The Predator (unmanned aerial vehicle) conducted successful post-assessment flight of
the NOLA impacted area.
o Flew over 100 flight hours and thirty-plus missions using ten different types of airframes
for: law enforcement insertion, aerial assessment, CBP OIT infrastructure support, energy
infrastructure support, logistics, recovery and aircraft repositioning.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE):
 ICE has received verbal notification for a mission assignment that will require that 100
agents/officers to deploy to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office to work on the east and west
banks of the river, beginning at 1800 hours September 4.
 Federal Protective Service (FPS) has received requests for assistance through ESF-13 to provide
protection at shelters and contract security.
US Coast Guard (USCG):
 The Coast Guard is conducting port assessment operations, with primary objective to open the
ports to reestablish regular commerce.
 D8 making plans to return to Command Center personnel to NOLA.
 Port of Mobile: Open to all traffic with a draft of 35 ft or less. Theodore Barge Canal remains
closed. Waterway should be fully re-opened after ACOE completes survey
 Port of New Orleans: Open with restrictions. Vessels with a draft of 30’ of less are permitted
from sea buoy to mile-marker (MM) 20. Traffic is open to all vessels regardless of draft from
MM 20 to MM 303.
 Port of Pascagoula: Open to traffic with a draft of 12 ft or less. Horn Island Channel is open with
restrictions. Vessel traffic is permitted on a case by case basis.
 Port of Gulfport: Open to traffic with a draft of 28 ft or less
 Port of Lake Charles: Calcasieu ship channel is open to traffic with a draft of 33 ft or less.
 Port of Houma/Morgan City: Closed
Health and Human Services (HHS)
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JFO Baton Rouge (BR): Moved Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) to in BR to support
community wide emergency room decompression.
Continuing to support and relieve state medical shelter operations – 2 sites relieved to release
clinic support to other site.
Operating 6 medical shelters and 1 acute care site.
Supporting National Guard medical needs with DMAT in Lafayette.
Worked towards restoring grid power to 3 of 4 large hospitals in Baton Rouge.
Priorities are discharge and Reentry from TX and AR to include repatriation of NDMS patients.
TX: Reentry issues are at the forefront; need to negotiate point to point transfer with LA;
Working contracts to support as well as EMAC agreements.
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Critical Infrastructure/Key Resources (CIKR):
Electricity
 As of 1:30 p.m. (EDT) September 4, there are 988,724 customers reported without power,
including 896,755 in Louisiana, 35,815 in Mississippi, and 56,155 in Arkansas.
Oil and Gas
 The Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) West Hackberry, Big Hill, Bryan Mound Sites are at
normal work status and are Drawdown ready (available to transfer).
 Stennis SPR Site anticipates re-opening September 4.
 Bayou SPR Choctaw Site is closed due to lack of commercial power.
 95.2% of oil production in the Gulf remains shut-in.
 87.5% of the natural gas production in the Gulf remains shut-in.
 The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) sustained no apparent catastrophic damage. Both the
onshore and offshore terminals are currently offline due to lack of electric power. It reports to
have several days of normal throughput in storage and will begin moving crude oil when power is
restored.
 DOE reports oil refineries beginning re-start operations – of 14 refineries affected, 1 initiated restart today with other 13 executing tomorrow; takes several days to come back up to capacity
after re-start.
Pipelines
 DOE reports Colonial and Plantation gasoline pipelines back open, at reduced capacity. Most of
the pipeline reductions are due to lack of electrical power.
Chemical
 ESF-10/EPA conducting HAZMAT assessments of HAZMAT facilities in affected areas.
 State of Louisiana HAZMAT hotline information: The toll free number for start up (and shutdown) of chemical plants is 1-877-925-6595 and the local number is 225-925-6595. This is not a
new process just put into place for the purpose of Gustav, it is a process that all chemical plants
are familiar with. They call the HAZMAT hotline to inform the state/local authorities when they
shut down as well as when they start up due to the probability of some kind of release or flare up
upon start up.
Telecommunications
 Phone - Approximately 289,000 (+135,000) wireline telephone network customers out of
service. A total of 32 switching centers out in the region. Most loss of service is because digital
loop carrier systems—a technology that increases the capacity of existing wires—are not
operational.
 Cellular - 1259 (-165) cell telephone sites out, representing 24.0% (-5.3%) of sites throughout the
affected area. 32 of the most seriously affected cell outage areas (by parish/county) are in
Louisiana and 3 in Mississippi counties. About 37% of the cell sites out of service are out
because of power failures. About 53% are out due to backhaul outages (e.g., cable cuts or
damage).
 Internet - No change from previous report. FCC has no additional information about the Internet,
based on the fact that there do not appear to be any major internet facilities down, FCC believes
that the Internet is most likely performing normally.
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State and Local Response:
Texas
 Special Needs population currently in San Antonio will be flown back into Southeast Texas on
Thursday, September 4.
 On September 4, six buses left Arlington, Texas with 460 evacuees from Arlington and Denton
shelters en route to Pineville, LA.
 A Staging Area for the Dallas/Fort Worth shelter population is being set up in Burleson.
 Returning several hundred evacuees to coastal Texas and will return LA evacuees pending parish
approval.
 Generators have been shipped from Fort Worth to Carville, LA.
Louisiana
 GOHSEP activated at Level I (Full Activation).
 ESF-13 is working coordination for Federal Air Marshalls to fly on 48 flights to return evacuees
to Louisiana.
 All but severely impacted Parishes are allowing voluntary return.
 Anticipate air operations for ingress of evacuees to commence September 6, 2008. Rail ingress
operations will commence approximately 9:00 pm EDT, September 4, 2008. Bus ingress
operations will commence September 5, 2008.
 The FEMA/Amtrak Re-entry Plan has been approved to transport evacuees from Memphis to
New Orleans. One train will arrive in NOLA September 5 with approximately 882 passengers
and one train will arrive September 6 with approximately 950 passengers. The remainder of the
New Orleans evacuees in Memphis shelters will be transported by coach style buses on
September 5.
 Significant damage to transmission system is complicating restoration; coordinating efforts with
ESF 3 and ESF 12 to ensure all avenues of support are being utilized to expedite restoration,
especially for critical facilities.
 Power restoration ongoing, but severely impacted parishes (Terrebonne, Lafourche) with little
power, with restoration estimated for 28 days.
 50 - 75% of Baton Rouge is still without power. 80% of the city traffic signals are out.
 Baton Rouge will be under a mandatory curfew starting at 8PM September 4.
 St. Bernard Parish is still without power.
 Reported that there is no electricity or water in Houma (Terrebone Parish)
Alabama
 EOC is activated at Level II (partial activation).
Mississippi
 SEOC continues to reduce op-tempo. Daytime operations scaling back and night shift
terminated. SEOC remains at level 1 and FEMA IMAT and FCO present.
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