garage in the LSU Health Sciences Center.
This made the trip much easier because
all the LSUHSC buildings and our plant
are connected by overhead walkways that
also carry the district energy piping. We
therefore did not have to get down into
the flood water and wade from building
to building.
We performed a preliminary assessment of the buildings to get an idea of
the damage sustained. This was only a
quick look for a few hours due to the constraints of our flight time.
While most of the group toured the
medical buildings, Jeff, Dan Shapiro of
Shaw, and I were in our plant. As we
walked into the main room in the thermal
plant, Dan made the first observation:
The temperature outdoors was in the 90s,
but because of our ice tank, the plant was
probably about 70 degrees. Dan thought
that was great. For me, the best feeling
came when we started one of our diesel
engines, and it fired right up. That was
one of the best sounds I’d ever heard. It
meant we were ready to get back in business, start cooling down the customer
buildings and help prevent further damage to them.
For me, the best feeling came
when we started one of our
diesel engines, and it fired right
up. That was one of the best
sounds I’d ever heard.
That is not to say we didn’t have any
damage in the plant. The plant was
designed with flood elevations in mind
so the water only reached a peak depth
of about 6 inches. All major equipment is
on housing pads and was therefore undamaged. The cooling towers also escaped
unscathed.
The conditions at our boiler plant
and a satellite plant were not as good, but
not irreparable. These buildings had up to
2 ft of water, but we considered this problem to be minimal compared with the
buildings around us. The focus was then
on working with our customers to get
them back in service.
The level of devastation in the city was
worse than what appeared on TV. New
Orleans looked like a version of Venice,
with nothing but water between the buildings as far as you could see. The streets
were being patrolled by police, in boats,
with everyone carrying automatic weapons.
The access ramps for the interstate became
boat launches.
The level of devastation in
the city was worse than
what appeared on TV.
In addition to matters at the plant,
there was the personal suffering to deal
with. Seven of our employees lost their
homes in the floods. Those who did not
lose their homes still had to evacuate the
area – some for weeks or months, not
just a few days. A few school systems
closed for the entire school year. This
meant families had to relocate to find
housing and place their children in new
school systems.
The company immediately developed
a very good program for this situation.
Temporary lodging in hotels was arranged,
apartments were secured for longer-term
use and rental vehicles were obtained for
transportation. All of these issues required
significant attention and coordination.
Meanwhile, our Entergy Corp.-affiliated
companies, headquartered downtown,
needed a tremendous amount of assistance with restoration. We were able to
loan our employees to other groups to
help them in the restoration process. In
some cases they supplied work crews with
food, water, soda and health supplies such
as hand wipes. This may sound rather
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Times-Picayune, Sept. 6, 2005
unimportant, but the need for these supplies was critical to people working in the
flooded areas. You don’t think about the
routine items you easily take for granted
until they aren’t available. Maintaining
sanitary conditions was imperative given
the potential for contamination.
Most of our employees temporarily
relocated in Baton Rouge, 80 miles from
New Orleans. Getting to the New Orleans
plant included the round trip and the
necessity to take everything we needed
to work. After a few weeks, people were
able to get back in homes or apartments
in Metairie and Kenner, towns adjacent to
the city. That reduced the round trip to
30 miles.
On Sept. 11, we were able to gain
access to the city through the security
check points. It was a strange feeling to
be required to show company identification to military guards with automatic
weapons to get past a check point and
enter the city. There was still water around
the plant, but the level had dropped low
enough for a pick-up truck to pass through.
The week of Sept. 12 we started the
cleanup and repair process as well as
pumping some chilled water through the
distribution system.
Plant processes worked well with a
few minor glitches. A few batteries went
dead, one charger and one pump switch
shorted out; but these were relatively
minor items that we were able to work
around. The thermal plant was designed
with a high degree of redundancy because
of the number of hospitals that it serves.
One plant design parameter had been
to provide critical service for patient-care
areas for at least 96 hours. To meet this
criterion, 8 MW of diesel generators were
installed with 60,000 gal of diesel fuel. In
addition, the plant has an ice tank with
52,000 ton-hours of storage. This made
initial startup operations quite easy
As we started to bring employees
back to the plant, health care
was still a major concern.
because the operator could meet system
load using a distribution pump and the
ice tank. It allowed flexibility for the operator to work on cleanup and repairs elsewhere during the day. Only as necessary
did we operate chillers and rebuild the
ice. Power was restored to the plant Sept.
19, right after the flood waters in the
vicinity of the substation went down.
