HJBR Nov/Dec 2021

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE  I  NOV / DEC 2021 21 look, we had trouble with nursing homes in Katrina, where people died. We had trou- ble with nursing homes in Gustav. We had trouble with elderly assist homes in Laura. This is not our first rodeo dealing after the fact with nursing home or assisted living or elderly HUD apartments. That’s got to be fixed. So, we’re tithering on knowing what to do and having proper resilience and execu- tion for the vulnerable population. We’ve got to do better. Editor Communication systems? Honoré The state, as most of govern- ment, is dependent on FirstNet, which is an AT&T system. In concept, it’s a beautiful system on a nice, shiny day. But when the grid fails, it fails. So, we have multiple 911 systems not work- ing and citizens that were trying to use their text, phone and internet to say, “I need help,”and FirstNet didn’t work ... very big disappointment. But the ear- nest is on the federal government who contracted and encouraged local state officials to use FirstNet. What we lost when we went from analog to digital ... when we had our analog radios, any state policeman could pick up a long whip antenna — that was back in the day when the state police had big antennas on the cars, and, well, you could talk to Africa on them things if you hit the right channel. When we went digital, we went to the near- est tower. When Mr. Wind takes the towers down, it cuts off the communication. When the towers lose power — if they’re flooded in surge water or they fall over — we lose our ability to communicate. And, we didn’t have sufficient backup long-range radios, FM, high frequency radios, in each one of not only the sheriff’s departments, but in the towns for the mayors. There’re even systems now that we need to update to where your cell phone, if you are member of this syndicate, it costs you $12 a month, you can send a message out via satellite. That can be embedded in selected people’s — sheriffs’, police, mayors’ — phones, and that technology needs to be pursued and needs to be a part of FirstNet. So, if your nearest tower is knocked out, it’s not hard for an operator in the parish EOC [emergency operations center] or some other place, because landlines are few and far between. The hard cable wires we have, we’re talk- ing about broadband cable, if they’re laid in the servitude, because we love our trees in the servitude, those big, beautiful trees, and the tree gets uprooted, it breaks the cable. They not only take the telephone and cable wire that’s above ground, they take the cable wire that’s below ground. They take out the water and take out the gas. So, the people with those gas generators are kaput — the ones that got natural gas, whole-home gen- erators — because you had a tree fall. We need a backup system, and I call that satellite that can be embedded in FirstNet, so you can say, “Hey, we’ve got a hundred people in a nursing home that need to be evacuated at this location. The bridge is broke in Lafitte. We need helicopters on standby for emergency evacuation,” or whatever the case might be. We need to take into consideration that we are ... We call it “Cancer Alley” to speak to the cluster of petrochemical industry that goes from close to Louisiana and Lafourche, comes north between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, 150 chemical plants. It’s the home to the Western Hemisphere’s largest ton- nage export port, the port of New Orleans. We export more per ton than any other port in the Western Hemisphere — over 40% of our exports. So, we’ve got the ports with ships at anchor. Fifty percent of the barges in America are in Louisiana on any given day. Our vulnerability to wind and surge ... it was a barge that broke the bridge at Lafitte. When we look at our ability to communicate, when Mother Nature overmatches, we have to be pre- pared. One of the principles of com- munication is redundancy. We did not have redundancy with AT&T First- Net. Our legislature has called AT&T in to testify. The federal government is challenging AT&T with what hap- pened. Silence. I know they’re work- ing hard to get past that, but this was a major indictment of digital communications. Editor What grade do you give com- munication systems? Honoré D. Now, when I say that I give it a D and not an F, because of the cul- ture — neighbors taking care of neigh- bors, the level of preparedness — we can’t say that because the communications went down, somebody lost their life. There’s no direct correlation, but there’s certainly a hell of a lot of people that went through a lot of pain and suffering, not being able to com- municate and say, “this is what we need and where we need it.” The other impact you haven’t mentioned is COVID. Editor Well, I was getting to that. Honoré We can’t ignore it, because our hos- pitals were full. The hospitals were full, because we had a large population that hadn’t taken the shot. That was the problem. PLANNING AND PREPARATION A+ “But even with an A+ in planning and preparation, we are reminded that Mother Nature can break anything, so you have a good game plan and still lose. In essence, a category storm like Ida wins and broke the infrastructure and broke the grid.”