AUGUSTA (AP) – Maine officials are assessing whether the state is prepared to handle a major hurricane after numerous problems with emergency response surfaced in the Gulf coast states following Hurricane Katrina.

Gov. John Baldacci has instructed Art Cleaves, director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency, to make sure all disaster plans are updated to handle a worst-case scenario if a hurricane hits the state.

“This is hurricane season,” Cleaves said. “Katrina was number 12 in a season that started early. Thirteen, 14 and 15 have us concerned.”

Maine has not had a major hurricane since Carol and Edna hit back-to-back in September 1954, killing 11 and injuring hundreds. The storms caused widespread flooding and washed out dozens of roads and bridges. Power outages and disruption of telephone service was felt through most of the state.

At the time, damages were estimated to exceed $25 million, or more than $172 million in today’s dollars.

“That is what we have to plan for, for the worst case that may happen,” Cleaves said.

The Maine Emergency Management Agency is charged with planning for disasters that might hit the state, from hurricanes and ice storms to terrorist attacks.

The agency has stacks of plans detailing emergency shelters and evacuation routes and designating the federal, state and local government staffers and facilities that could be used in a disaster, Cleaves said.

Hurricane Katrina and its impact on New Orleans serve as a reminder “that we need to do that detailed planning,” Cleaves said. “In many areas of Maine we are not well-prepared, and in many areas of the state we are very well-prepared.”

Baldacci said he has asked that all aspects of emergency response be reviewed. If shelters have not been stocked adequately, he has ordered the agency to make sure they are prepared. If plans have not been tested adequately, they will be, he said.

“We are not going to let what happened down in the Gulf coast states happen to Maine,” the governor said. “I have to be prepared to order evacuations, to forcibly remove people from their homes, and I am willing to do that to keep them safe.”

Cleaves’ agency is no stranger to disasters, and has responded to dozens of major storms over the years. Between 1994 and 2004, there were a dozen major disaster declarations, ranging from the 1998 ice storm to flooding in the fall of 1996.

Cleaves said the state learned a lot from the 1998 ice storm that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of Mainers and disrupted delivery of food, heating oil and other necessities.

As a result of the ice storm, many public and private facilities now have backup generators and contingency plans and supplies, Cleaves said.

But while many areas of weakness in the state’s response to the ice storm have been strengthened, Cleaves said that areas remain where the state has not put adequate systems in place to handle a major disaster.

“Nine-11 woke us up to the fact that we truly need to be interoperable, that all the radios in use must be able to communicate with each other, and we have got to have backups,” Cleaves said. “We have started that process with the new state police system.”

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

AP-ES-09-05-05 1331EDT

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