Isaac adds to city’s streetlight woes

17th September 2012   ·   0 Comments

By Susan Buchanan
Contributing Writer

Street signals in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes were repaired within two weeks after Isaac pushed up the West Bank on August 29. Stops signs and streetlights are another matter, however, and will take longer to fix. Newly damaged streetlights have added to a big backlog that Mayor Mitch Landrieu had hoped to have fully repaired by year’s end. The city’s streetlights are still recovering from Katrina.

Last week, Mayor Landrieu, Senator Mary Landrieu and Representative Cedric Richmond announced that the Federal Emergency Manage­ment Agency had awarded $27.3 million in grants to the city for costs associated with Isaac. Of that, $6 million is to repair traffic signals, replace missing signs, secure and restore damaged streetlights and clear catch basins.

The city said early last week that dozens of Dept. of Public Works employees were securing fallen traffic signals and streetlights, repairing signals and signs, towing flooded vehicles, cleaning catch basins and making temporary street repairs.

By last week, traffic signals visibly damaged by the storm at 247 New Orleans intersections were fully or temporarily repaired. Two, serious outages were fixed. “Entergy shut off power to the traffic signal at Poydras St. and North Robertson and nearby streetlights last week so that equipment could be repaired,” said Hayne Rainey, spokesman for Mayor Landrieu. Work on a traffic signal at General De Gaulle Dr. and Woodland in Old Aurora was scheduled to be complete by last Thursday, he said.

Isaac knocked stop and yield signs down across town. But by Monday, over 400 signs had been repaired or replaced, the Mayor’s office said. Stop, one-way, turn and yield signs have been given priority over street-name signs.

By Monday, Public Works employees had raised 104 knocked-down or leaning streetlights. But City Hall estimated it would take another three weeks to fully assess Isaac’s damage to streetlights.

Ryan Berni, spokesman for Mayor Landrieu, said last week “Hurricane Isaac has likely impacted the plan to have every streetlight repaired by year-end. Our team is still working to assess the storm’s total damage, and we were working to reduce a backlog of nearly 7,000 streetlights before Isaac hit.”

If your block is spooky at night and the perfect setting for a Halloween movie, you’re not alone. Nearly 13 percent of the city’s 54,400 streetlights aren’t working though it’s not for lack of trying. The Landrieu Admini­stration has fixed over 16,000 streetlights since taking office but lights keep burning out or breaking. In May, the city announced plans to spend over $9 million this year, including $8 million in one-time federal recovery funds, to get all streetlights working again.

In May, City Council members praised that plan. In a May 2, City Hall release, Jon Johnson, a District D Council member at the time, noted that streetlights had been a problem since Katrina. “We have heard from our constituents that the lack of proper lighting has deterred them or kept them from venturing out of their homes at night,” he said.

Last week, Jewel Carney, owner of New Orleans Safe Driving School on Tulane Ave. and a retired Greyhound Bus driver, said “since areas with broken streetlights are difficult to navigate at night, drivers in unfamiliar neighborhoods should take it very slowly after dark.”

Anika Beasley, owner of Proficient Driving Academy LLC in New Orleans East, advised any residents who are visually impaired at night, including some of the elderly, to stay off the roads after sundown. But even drivers with good vision are challenged by dark city streets, with no visible curbs.

Meanwhile, some of the city’s already bad drivers have been more reckless because of missing signs. Carney said he was out driving the day after Isaac passed west of town. “I saw several accidents, one serious, and they appeared to be related to signals and signs that were out,” he said. “People were confused at intersections without signals. By law, they were supposed to come to a full stop but some drivers blew right through.” He also saw motorists who were perplexed by a red light that was working but was upside down.

Mayor Landrieu said in a Sept. 1 briefing that 71 car accidents had been reported since Isaac’s approach five days earlier.

Don Redman, Metairie-based AAA spokesman, said when a traffic control signal isn’t working at an intersection and when signal lights are dark, drivers must treat the intersection as an all-way stop. Motorists often don’t use or recall what they learned in driver’s education, he said.

Syed Kazmi, president of United Cab Inc. in New Orleans, said “we practice safety first but with traffic signals out after Isaac our drivers had to be more cautious than ever.” Kenner, home to Louis Armstrong International Airport, had a lot of broken traffic lights, he noted.

Kazmi, who is known as “the Sheriff,” said United’s drivers did pretty well under the circumstances but added that all of the city’s signs and streetlights need to be fixed. “We don’t want our passengers—our residents and our tourists—to be frightened on the roads,” he said.

According to Kenner Public Works on Thursday, all traffic signals were back on there, but a number of signs remained down and some streetlights weren’t working.

Susan Treadway, a Jefferson Parish traffic engineer, gave a similar report for the parish, saying “we’ve repaired the signals, and are working on signs on the main streets but haven’t really gotten to signs in the neighborhoods yet.” She added “if we get a phone call about a stop missing in a neighborhood, we take care of it.”

Anika Beasley said Isaac-related outages provided a learning lab for her driving school students. “They learned to come to a full stop at a broken light and to proceed very cautiously when stop signs have been blown down,” she said.

Locals need that training. Carney said “as a former Greyhound driver, I’ve been in most cities in the United States, and New Orleans has the worst drivers I’ve ever seen. It’s partly because the traffic laws, especially at stop signs and intersections, aren’t strictly enforced.”

Carney said accidents tend to increase right before a hurricane. “People who seldom drive and have cars that aren’t highway-worthy hit the road,” he said. And accidents occur after a storm because signals, signs and streetlights are out, and drivers aren’t cautious enough. “If you’re late, just be late because it doesn’t pay to rush on the roads after a hurricane or at any time,” he said.

To report a broken streetlight or a fallen stop sign, phone the City’s Dept. of Public Works at (504) 658-8080.

This article was originally published in the September 17, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper