MICHELE NORRIS, host:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Michele Norris.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I'm Melissa Block.
Residents of New Orleans and its suburbs are returning home today, two days after Hurricane Gustav tore across the Gulf Coast. Mayor Ray Nagin cautioned people about widespread power outages and limited medical services, and said he wouldn't recommend they stay in the city until those problems are addressed.
Heavy rains and the threat of tornadoes slowed attempts by utility companies to restore downed power lines throughout southern Louisiana. More than a million homes and businesses are without power. And it's estimated that some areas won't have electricity for weeks.
In Baton Rouge, several hospitals were running on generators, and one hospital had to transfer dozens of critical-care patients to New Orleans after its generator failed.
Terrebonne Parish, where Gustav made landfall, is still off limits to residents. Earlier today, I spoke with Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois there about plans for the evacuees' return.
Sheriff VERNON BOURGEOIS (Terrebonne Parish): Starting Friday at 6 a.m., we're going to allow people to do a look-and-leave program, that is, when people can come in to the area, assess their damages, see what they need at their homes, make any repairs they need to make. And prior to 8 p.m., they can leave the parish, and then the next day the same thing. That will be assessed daily.
BLOCK: Now, what if people don't want to leave at 8 p.m.?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: We were also advising people this is not a safe place to remain. We have no electricity. With that, the water's running poorly, and (unintelligible) anyway, not much sewage. But we live in electrical age now, with no electricity - 100 percent out in the parish - and we also have no medical services, no gasoline, no way to get pharmaceutical needs, things of that nature. So it's not a safe environment to live in. I mean, they can choose on their own, but we're telling them don't stay.
BLOCK: So there's no power in the entire parish?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: Correct, 100 percent outage.
BLOCK: What about supplies for people if they need food, water, things like that?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: Yeah, and that's why we ask them not to stay. There is nothing here. There's no stores open, there's no electricity. It's not provided to them.
BLOCK: Would you prefer to keep people away longer to not have to deal even with people coming back, checking out their property and then going?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: I would prefer that also. We made the decision to allow them to come check their property.
BLOCK: And why did you decide to do that?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: Because you have to do something, some kind of a way, it is a safer way to do it.
BLOCK: I mean, all around you, there are people who are being allowed back in to parishes to stay. Do you feel some pressure from people building outside, saying, if you don't let us back, you're going to have a real problem here?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: That is part of the problem also, but they have the infrastructure, we do not. We don't have electricity. So like I said, if somebody comes in and wants to cut their tree in their front yard and they cut their fingers off, they're going to have problems. If you go knock on emergency room doors, it's not going to open. There's no hospital services, there's no medical services, no anything.
BLOCK: How long do you figure it'll be that you'll be without power there in Terrebonne Parish?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: Unknown. I'm looking for maybe three or four weeks.
BLOCK: Three or four weeks?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: Yes, ma'am.
BLOCK: How would you compare the situation there now with how it was after Katrina and Rita back in 2005?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: Totally different. We were inundated with water. And we normally have, like, you know, a small number of power poles down. But honestly, when have, you know, 70 percent of your power poles down, this could be an issue. The issue is also further outside Terrebonne Parish, where you get energy from outside this area. It didn't come, you know, we don't just make it ourselves. And there's issues with power lines even as far as out at Baton Rouge, it affects us. So it's an entire infrastructure that has to be repaired.
BLOCK: Did you see that as well with Katrina and Rita, or not so much?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: No, not so much. It was different. It was rising water. They wasn't as hard as winds, evidently.
BLOCK: Do you have any sense of when things might be livable there? I mean, if you're not going to have power for three to four weeks, what are you telling people over the long term?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: Well, that's what we're trying to tell them. We're trying to get power up in grids. If we can get the hospital up and the grid running and medical services provided, and government getting back working, so it's safe for everybody, it will allow people to come back to the parish and return on their own decision basis.
BLOCK: Have you been around much of Terrebonne Parish since the storm?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: Yes, ma'am. I've covered the entire parish plus the flyover.
BLOCK: You have. What does it look like?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: It's typical hurricane damage after hurricane. Shingles off of roofs, some unsupported structures have fallen down, things of that nature -trees down everywhere, leaves and branches everywhere.
BLOCK: But most houses intact?
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: Oh, yes, ma'am. Oh, yes. Very large number - 98 percent were unharmed.
BLOCK: It does seem odd, doesn't it, that you're talking about a parish that's sort of unlivable even though, structurally, things are okay. But it's the infrastructure that's gone.
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: That's exactly it. The infrastructure is what makes a non-safe environment to live here.
BLOCK: Well, Sheriff Bourgeois, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. We appreciate it.
Sheriff BOURGEOIS: Thank you very much.
BLOCK: Vernon Bourgeois is the sheriff of Terrebonne Parish. He spoke with us from the emergency operation center in Houma. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.