Katrina & Rita Recovery Updates, Oct 6, 2005

A Message from Southwest Louisiana/Lake Charles CVB, (Shelley Johnson, Executive Director):
“The Southwest Louisiana/Lake Charles area has been temporarily affected by Hurricane Rita. There was minimal flooding throughout the area, but water levels have gone down, and power is being restored in Southwest Louisiana day by day. The staff of the Southwest Louisiana Convention & Visitors Bureau is accessible by e-mail, and we will be happy to assist you as soon as possible. We thank you for your interest in Southwest Louisiana, and we are looking forward to giving our visitors a true helping of Southern hospitality once we get up and running.”

Travel Plans: Interstate 10 is open to traffic in Calcasieu Parish.  Hotel rooms are sparse in Calcasieu Parish (Lake Charles & Sulphur) with the majority of our properties generously supporting FEMA, Entergy, and other emergency personnel. Currently, 8 hotels will be closed for 30-90 days for repairs while the rest of the hotels will have minimal damage to repair.
 
Upcoming Conventions:   In January, Lake Charles will be hosting the Lieutenant Governor’s Louisiana Travel and Tourism Summit.  We will recover and rebuild by January. We will also be hosting the Outdoor Writers Association of America in June.
 
Attractions:  Casinos are currently assessing their damages. Here is a brief overview of the casinos in Southwest Louisiana/Lake Charles:
L’Auberge du Lac:  Friday, Oct. 7, L’Auberge du Lac will be open to the public.
Isle of Capri:  The Isle will soon be open to the public.
Delta Downs Racetrack Casino & Hotel:   The casino and hotel were untouched, but the restaurants at the property were damaged.
Harrah’s Lake Charles Casino & Hotel:    Harrah’s is currently assessing the situation.
Creole Nature Trail All-American Road:   The Creole Nature Trail All-American Road will eventually pull through. The marsh will recover. The birds will return. The alligators will come back. Clean up will be the key to bringing our visitors back. Each year, the Creole Nature Trail All-American Road brings about 300,000 tourists to Southwest Louisiana.
 
Contacting the Bureau:
The Southwest Louisiana Convention & Visitors Bureau is extremely limited on the amount of phone calls it can receive. Please email us for up-to-date information, and we will be glad to help you.
Contacting Staff:  If you are a meeting planner or with the media and need to reach staff members of the Southwest Louisiana CVB, you can contact the following people directly: Sales:  Sales Director: Tico Soto, 337-802-5710, TSoto@VisitLakeCharles.org
Communications:   Angie Istre, 337-377-9231, AIstre@VisitLakeCharles.org
 
L’Auberge du Lac plans to reopen Friday
2theadvocate.com staff report  LAKE CHARLES — L’Auberge du Lac Hotel & Casino in Lake Charles announced today that it will reopen its casino and buffet areas this Friday, Oct. 7, and plans to reopen its additional facilities Tuesday, Oct. 11.   The reopening is pending approvals from local and regional authorities, including gaming regulators, local law enforcement and health-department officials.
 
The new L’Auberge property includes a 26-story hotel complex with approximately 750 rooms and suites; an 18-hole golf course, and the largest single-level riverboat casino in the United States
 
Delta Downs begins repairs to casino damaged by Rita
VINTON, La. (AP) — The Delta Downs race track and casino sustained wind and water damage from Hurricane Rita’s tear across southwestern Louisiana.  The track’s owner, Boyd Gaming, says the main structures sustained little or no damage, except for horse barns, roof damage allowed water to enter the buildings.  No damage estimate was issued by the company. Boyd Gaming said work has begun to repair the damage.  The company said it could not estimate when the complex would be reopened. Delta Downs is scheduled to begin an 88-day thoroughbred meet on Oct. 21.
 
 
New Orleans is now open to all residents
Residents of New Orleans can now enter all parts of the city, except for the Lower Ninth Ward (the area along the river, about 3 miles downriver from the French Quarter).
 
 
New Orleans CVB:  Hurricane Katrina Recovery Current Update Summary
As of 10:00 a.m. CST on Thursday, October 6:

Overview
Five weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, New Orleans is already showing signs of returning to some normalcy while on the long road to complete recovery.

Officials’ door-to-door search for and recovery of bodies ended Wednesday. The Army Corps of Engineers has pumped New Orleans dry of all floodwater. Now work to rebuild the city is being fully revved up.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta announced Tuesday that $47 million in federal emergency funds are now available to help restore transit service to New Orleans and to expand service for the rising population in Baton Rouge. The emergency funding, which will remain available over the next 6 months, will be used by the New Orleans RTA and Baton Rouge CATS to fund bus routes and services in the two cities.

Citizens are continuing to pour back into the city every day, joining the tens of thousands who have returned to clean up, repair and work to rebuild their lives and the city. The French Quarter, CBD and Uptown re-opened to business owners on Tuesday and residents Friday (Algiers was opened on Monday). These areas had accounted for approximately one-third of New Orleans’ population. The remaining areas of the city, except for the lower Ninth Ward, will re-opened to business owners and residents on Oct. 5.

Police Capt. Marlon Defillo said that the re-entry has been very smooth, residents are patient and cooperative, and there have been no problems with the 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. curfew.

While business owners and residents alike recognize the challenges ahead on the road to recovery, they were taking time away from the hard work to celebrate being back in the city they love this past weekend, their first back in the city.

On Sunday, the historic St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter’s Jackson Square celebrated Sunday Mass for the first time since Katrina. In the French Quarter, live music has been pouring into the streets from bars and clubs, some favorite restaurants have been welcoming patrons to enjoy abbreviated menus, and crowds of returned locals and stationed recovery workers have sipped tall drinks as they strolled down a lively Bourbon Street.

The activity is a welcome sign of optimism: the hope and determination of people returned to rebuild their city. Every day, more businesses join the pulse of New Orleans’ French Quarter, CBD and Warehouse and Arts District.

Hotels, too, are day by day joining the renaissance of New Orleans’ world famous offerings. Friday afternoon on Canal Street, J.W. Marriott, Jr., chairman and CEO of Marriott International, and J. Stephen Perry, president and CEO of the NOMCVB, celebrated the raising of the flag over the JW Marriott New Orleans, signaling the hotel’s official re-opening. Marriott is one of the largest hotel operators in New Orleans with 15 hotels. Over the next few days, 6 more of those will join the JW Marriott in re-opening to welcome guests and help return tourism to New Orleans.

While water and sewerage treatment services have not yet been restored on the East Bank, power and gas service restoration is progressing ahead of schedule.

Power has been restored to about 99% of Jefferson Parish and 36% of Orleans Parish, including those who can accept service in the French Quarter, the CBD, the Warehouse and Arts District, Algiers, river side Uptown (including Garden District), and 50% of Bywater/Marigny.

Gas service has been restored to those who can accept it in virtually all of these areas, although parts of the French Quarter will require another 2 weeks of work because of water infiltration in the main lines, and Bywater/Marigny is currently under evaluation. Lakeshore and Lakevista gas service has also been restored.

Hotels and some businesses are providing guests and patrons with safe water via large temporary tanks.The 70130 zip code area, which includes the CBD, the Warehouse and Arts District and parts of the French Quarter and Uptown, is expected to have potable water soon.

The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and the Port of New Orleans remain open. Northwest, Southwest, Continental, American, Delta are all offering limited flight service, and United and JetBlue are coming back. Limited taxi cab, shuttle and rental car services are available.

EPA air quality test results following Katrina indicated absolutely no problems. Initial analysis of samples of Lake Ponchartrain water samples showed earlier this week that it is not nearly the “toxic soup” rumors had indicated. Bacteria levels are lower than expected, and isolated fish kills, it showed, were due to lowered levels of oxygen, not toxins or oils rumored to come from floodwater pumped into the lake.
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Thursday, October 06, 2005

Curfew pushed back for ‘open’ areas of city
By Michelle Krupa, Staff writer, Times-Picayune

In a move that could bolster commerce by allowing businesses to remain open later, the New Orleans police department said late Thursday the nighttime curfew for “open’’ areas of the city has been pushed back from 8 p.m. to midnight. Streets still will stayed closed until 6 a.m.

Capt. Marlon Defillo, the department’s spokesman, said “open” areas of the city include Uptown, the Garden District, the Central Business District and French Quarter. Other parts of town, including Lakeview, Mid-City, Gentilly and eastern New Orleans would remain under an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, with access to the Lower 9th Ward still completely restricted. Algiers had no curfew, he said.
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October 6, 2005  Tap water is drinkable once again in east bank
By Gordon Russell,  Staff writer

Tap water is drinkable once again across a broad swath of New Orleans’ east bank.  That was the word from state officials on Thursday and a huge boost to the effort to repopulate a desolate city as quickly as possible.

For many families considering a return to New Orleans, the lack of water suitable for drinking and cooking was a major reason to stay away. Now the problem has disappeared on the city’s east bank from the Jefferson Parish line to the Industrial Canal.

The lack of potable water several weeks ago was at the heart of U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen’s reluctance to embrace Mayor Ray Nagin’s accelerated plan for repopulating the city.

Potable water is still not available in eastern New Orleans or the Lower 9th Ward, two of the neighborhoods hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. Algiers has had drinkable water since before the storm.
 
Power Outages (Entergy)

Louisiana: 193,691*
*Including 156,000 customers who are unable to receive service because of damage to their homes.

Percentage of Entergy customers in the metropolitan New Orleans area without power:
Jefferson Parish 1 %
Plaquemines Parish 68 %
Orleans Parish 60 %
St. Bernard Parish 100 %
 
Treasure Chest Casino (New Orleans – Kenner) reopens Monday
6:30 p.m.,  By Mary Swerczek, Kenner bureau

Treasure Chest casino, one of Jefferson Parish’s largest employers and the source of about $6 million a year for Kenner government, will reopen Monday at noon for the first time since Hurricane Katrina 5 1/2 weeks ago.  The casino has 1,000 employees.
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Fair Grounds Race Track season transferred to Harrah’s Louisiana Downs in Bossier City
Friday, 3:40 p.m.
By Bob Fortus
Staff writer
OPELOUSAS – The Fair Grounds on Friday received unanimous approval from the State Racing Commission to run a 37-day season at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City (Shreveport) to make up for the cancellation of the racing season in New Orleans.  The transferred Fair Grounds season, with purses averaging about $270,000 per day, will begin Nov. 19 and run through Jan. 22. Hurricane Katrina wiped out an 83-day Fair Grounds season scheduled for Nov. 24-March 26.

October 11, 2005   Posted in: United States South