Alabama EMA director discusses Ida preparations, aftermath response

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Alabama’s Emergency Operations Center has been open and busy all weekend, watching Hurricane Ida’s landfall in Louisiana and preparing for what it could bring to our state. It’s also providing a valuable resource for the response to Ida after the storm passes.

“We’re partnering with FEMA, and naturally there is an incident staging base at Maxwell Air Force Base. So there’s hundreds of semi trucks, semi trailers full of generators and commodities. And they’re just sitting there. They’re sitting there waiting to push someplace else when there’s a need or a capability,” said Alabama’s EMA Director Brian Hastings.

“You heard overnight that there was a catastrophic failure of the power grid in New Orleans, so I’m assuming that a lot of those generators will be heading to Louisiana in and around the New Orleans area and Mississippi in the southern portion where they’ve had significant weather damage,” Hastings added.

FEMA has staged more than 2.5 million meals, liters of water, and other supplies like tarps and generators at Maxwell Air force base in Montgomery.

Those supplies will be sent to areas in Louisiana that need it most

Copyright 2021 WSFA 12 News. All rights reserved.