Do You Ever Wonder

if government officials read your blog? I'm sure that not many read mine but from site-meter reports, I have seen that a few Congress critters have read it. Back in February I did a post called Considerations. It outlined a few ideas I had for evacuating the Mississippi Gulf Coast if we were to be threatened by another hurricane.

Some of the ideas I came up with were:

In the event of another hurricane heading our way, I offer the following suggestions for our emergency officials:

1) Use school buses to transport people out of the area

2) Open places such as Camp Shelby, the Jackson Convention Center, and other places inland that can hold large amounts of people

3) Make sure the people boarding the buses are aware they need to bring enough non-perishable food and water to last 5-7 days

In today's Sunherald, Governor Barbour addresses the the same concerns I had about the time it would now take to evacuate the Coast.

The governor said he expects many survivors who stayed on the Coast for Katrina will now be less willing to remain for another hurricane.

With the possibility of more vehicles clogging the highways, it will take longer for people to leave the southernmost counties. That, too, will drive the need for officials to issue earlier evacuation orders.

"It'll cost us money, but that's just what you have to do," Barbour said. "Better safe than sorry."

State agency leaders are working on a new disaster plan that will lay out the state's response for a host of events, from hurricanes to earthquakes to terrorist attacks.

The new plan must be filed by early May, and hurricane season starts June 1. The plan will cover everything from law-enforcement communication systems to hurricane evacuation routes.

Public transportation is not widely available in Mississippi but will become more important in the coming hurricane season because many Coast residents still have not replaced cars they lost in Katrina.

Barbour said the state does not plan to buy new buses for hurricane evacuations. He said school buses will be used, and they could come from school districts in any part of the state.

I don't seriously believe that the Governor reads my blog but it's reassuring that the officials of Mississippi are addressing the new needs in the event that those of us along the Coast will have to evacuate in case of a hurricane. It's also good that are planning for other disasters such as earthquakes. Northern Mississippi has fault lines that are connected to the New Madrid fault line and has suffered minor quakes.