Isaac derails Jindal’s best-laid plans

With Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plans to speak at the Republican Party’s convention sidelined, political pundits suggested the governor would still get national attention with his usual strong and in-control appearance responding to Louisiana’s latest disaster.

He would have been better off with Hurricane Isaac diverted elsewhere and a short, primetime speech to the GOP faithful.

Instead, Jindal got a reminder that other Louisiana governors before him have received: hurricanes and tropical storms don’t do what they’re told, and the best-laid plans can quickly go awry when a disaster strikes.

Images of rooftop rescues, boat evacuations and shattered homes blanketed the news, along with people questioning evacuation strategies and storm decisions of state and local officials.

With his rapid-fire list of state preparations and response efforts, Jindal has tried to present the confident image of a governor responding to the havoc.

But while each new development – from overtopped levees to the threat of a dam break – got a prompt response, Jindal ran into the same problems as past officials.

Unexpected needs and damage erupted, people had to hack their way from their attics, nursing homes had to be evacuated and newly-homeless evacuees were trucked to shelters where their family members had trouble immediately tracking them down. Information was hard and slow to come by. And the waters continued to rise for days.

Jindal, a frequent critic of federal spending levels, followed the same path as Louisiana officials in past disasters, asking for federal government aid and wanting it as quickly as possible.

That’s the nature of a storm. And Isaac was only a relatively weak Category 1 when it blew ashore last Tuesday.

Jindal hasn’t publicly second-guessed officials’ decisions or responses, at the state and local levels.

He noted that parish leaders are the officials who decide evacuation orders, not state officials, and he pointed out that he strongly encouraged people living outside of levees and in low-lying areas to do a voluntary evacuation.

“I think local leaders acted responsibly based on the best information available to them to order mandatory evacuations in some of those areas,” the governor said.

He added, “Our folks have lived through multiple storms. I think the best thing we can do is give them the information as we get it from the National Weather Service on whether there’s likely to be flooding, with an emphasis that storm situations and conditions change, to strongly recommend that they evacuate – and then certainly for folks that don’t evacuate or face unexpected flooding, make sure we’ve got the assets to go in and do everything we can to save lives first and property second.”

Questioned about the state preparations, Jindal talked of weather predictions that didn’t quite pan out.

“You did see significantly higher surges in areas even higher than what was predicted by the National Weather Service. Part of what happened was this storm stalled off the coast of Louisiana. It was predicted to be a slow-moving storm, but it moved even slower than was predicted,” he said. “I do think this was an unusual storm.”

With higher-than-normal water levels expected for days, the extent of Isaac’s wrath won’t be clear for some time.

Once the immediate response needs clear, Jindal will face new challenges and questions. Will the government help people rebuild? What preparations will change to get ready for the next inevitable storm? Will you urge changes in local evacuation plans?

Caught in the middle of an election year but needing help from a Democratic administration, Jindal tried to defuse suggestions that Isaac and the response efforts could be a political football.

“There is no time for partisan politics in Louisiana at this point in time. We’re continuing to respond to a storm,” he said Friday.

It’s impossible to think the governor doesn’t already know this, but Jindal’s sure to find that keeping politics out of the aftermath of a hurricane is impossible, another lesson Louisiana officials have been forced to learn in earlier storms.

Jindal would have been better off without Isaac and at the Republican National Convention, watching Clint Eastwood talk to the empty chair.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Melinda Deslatte covers Louisiana politics for The Associated Press.