November-December 2007

    US Legislative Report

    Focus on Louisiana:
    The Never-Ending Storm

    We all remember the horrifying pictures on our television screens. Water was everywhere. Millions of homes were destroyed. Helpless people were standing on their rooftops with their children and pets pleading for help. And they were the lucky ones. Others died while waiting for help at the Superdome, their bodies abandoned on the sidewalk as if it were trash day.

    This was New Orleans, LA, in the days after Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst human tragedies in modern history.


    Government Failed

    Federal, state, and local government failed the residents of New Orleans on that day. When the University of New Orleans surveyed the city’s residents about their personal hurricane evacuation plans a full year before the storm, it found that many people had no plan at all. An estimated 100,000 New Orleans residents had no means to evacuate: no car, not enough money for airfare or a bus ticket, no friends or family to help them leave town.

    Why then, were the majority of the city’s transit buses – which provided the only means of escape in the event of an evacuation – left like sitting ducks to be swept up by the waters of Lake Pontchartrain? Why weren’t the hundreds of ATU members employed by the area’s three transit agencies asked to help get people out?


    Not a Sound

    There are many questions to ask about what happened that day, and even more about what has happened in the 27 months since the storm. Even now, there are entire sections of the city that look just as they did when the flood waters first started to recede. Not a sound can be heard for miles.

    Local President Joseph Prier, Jr., 1560-New Orleans, LA, recalled how transit service in the city was cut by 80% after Katrina. "We lost over 700 members. We lost 350 buses. We used to pick up 197,000 people a day. We’re doing 30,000 - 40,000 a day now," Prier lamented, "But it doesn’t have to be that way."

    The federal response, led by President Bush, has remained painstakingly slow. The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (NORTA) has been using very old buses with high mileage donated by transit agencies across the U.S. in an effort to keep some service on the street.


    Transit is Essential

    Although the city’s population has increased moderately in recent months, it is nowhere near what it was prior to the storm. The majority of the area’s poorest residents have not returned. Many have relocated to nearby Jefferson Parish, LA, just minutes from downtown New Orleans and the home of Local President Donnie K. Small, Sr., 1535-Harahan, LA, a longtime president of the ATU Louisiana Legislative Conference Board.

    "You can’t ask people to come back when they have no way of getting around," insisted Small, "Transit is essential to helping our citizens get access to jobs, health care, groceries, and other necessities of life. Since the storm, their options have been limited."

    In early 2006, Small flew to Washington, DC, to lobby Congress and the Federal Transit Administration for additional transit money. While the extra funding did not come through, the conference board was able to secure language in a bill to allow Katrina-affected areas to use their existing federal transit funds to pay for operating expenses until 2008. Normally, such funds can only be used to pay for equipment.

    In January, 2007, Small led a delegation of ATU members fromacross the state to meet with the staff of then-Governor KathleenBlanco, D, to secure more money for public transit statewide. The conference board noted that even before Katrina, Louisiana’s statetransit funding was extremely low. Other southern states such as Tennessee and North Carolina – which have less transit thanLouisiana – have been providing much more.


    Meeting Paid Off

    That meeting paid off, as the governor later recommended to the legislature that it increase funding for public transit in an effort to repopulate the region. Throughout the spring, the conference board orchestrated a postcard campaign with bus riders in support ofincreased transit funding. In some cities, local officials actuallyprohibited ATU members from conducting the campaign on thebuses. Nevertheless, the conference board distributed thousandsof letters to transit customers and delivered them to members ofthe legislature.

    The end result was a strong 20% increase in funding that will beused to increase service throughout the state. "It’s a good start," said Small, "Not as much as we asked for, but you’ve got to startsomewhere. Next year we are going after dedicated funding so thatno matter who is in office, transit will get its share."

    More than two years after the storm, most Americans have stopped thinking about New Orleans. They have moved on, focusing ontheir own problems. ATU members in the New Orleans area are not afforded that luxury. They see the heartache caused by Katrina every day. Even today, some transit passengers in the New Orleans areahave to wait more than two hours for a bus, and some 300 people aweek are turned down from much-needed paratransit service.

    In 2005, ATU members in the Big Easy lost their loved ones, their pets, and their personal belongings. But they never lost hope, or their love for the city’s residents.

    "I fight everyday because it’s about the people we pick up," said Prier.

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