Homeland security head visits Louisiana on Gustav

28 August 2008 20:30  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff visited Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana, on Thursday to meet with state and local officials as part of widespread preparations for what is expected will be a Tuesday landfall by Gustav.

As of 13:00 Houston time (18:00 GMT), the tropical storm was about 40 miles (65km) east of Kingston, Jamaica, according to the National Hurricane Center. Gustav was expected to become a hurricane on Thursday and was projected to pass through the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall at Louisiana.

Much of the US petrochemical production is concentrated along the Gulf coast, leaving it vulnerable to disruptions caused by tropical storms.

Chertoff was to visit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) joint field office in Baton Rouge for a meeting with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.  Later, he and Jindal were to travel to New Orleans for a meeting there with the city's mayor, Ray Nagin.

Chertoff’s department is coordinating preparedness work being done by several federal agencies, including the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Transportation, the National Guard and the American Red Cross.

The corps has responsibility for levees and dikes around New Orleans that are supposed to protect the low-lying city from storm surge floods. The collapse of several of those levees in the double 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused multiple fatalities and extensive damage in the city.

Several Gulf chemical and energy producers announced preparation plans for Gustav’s arrival.

Anadarko, operator of  eight production platforms, said no production has been shut-in and all non-essential personnel will be evacuated by Saturday. By Sunday, company anticipates a total evacuation and of all operated Gulf of Mexico facilities and drilling rigs.

Enterprise Products Partners said it was also monitoring the storm’s path and will have evacuated its eastern Gulf of Mexico operations by Saturday.

Huntsman will likely keeps its maleic anhydride (MA) plant online at Pensacola, Florida, a source said. The plant has a capacity of 110,000 tonnes/year.

(Additional reporting by Steven McGinn, David Rosen and Al Greenwood)

For more on maleic anhydride visit ICIS chemical intelligence
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By: Joe Kamalick
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