New Orleans is preparing to begin evacuating residents out of the city to temporary shelters as Entergy continues to fight to regain power in New Orleans, city officials announced Thursday.
The transportation plan, which is in the final stages of planning, would be voluntary. This is not a mandatory evacuation. But with the power outage in most of the city, affecting residents, it looks like the city is trying to give them at least the option to wait in a cooler place while Entergy turns on his power.
Voluntary evacuation comes as the city prepares to open a shelter at the Convention Center this weekend for people with significant medical conditions.
According to a city official, the evacuation system will be “essentially a bus service.” It will initially be limited to people with special medical needs for the elderly and with outpatient lighting, but will soon begin relocating members of the general population who want to leave the city.
The evacuations will be for those “who want to leave and don’t have the means to do so,” the official said.
However, he made it clear that the evacuees will have no choice where to go, and will be relocated to shelters in central and northern Louisiana, and possibly out of state. When the evacuees are taken home will depend on when Entergy returns power to the city.
In the meantime, it appears that the city could expand the work program for Orleans Parish Orchestra Orchestra Sheriff’s Office inmates, known as the OPSO Transition Work Program, to include recovery and cleanup work. ‘Ida. Details were not immediately available, but Mayor LaToya Cantrell told reporters Tuesday that the extension would be formally announced Thursday.