WWL-TV has the story on their blog:

STATEMENT FROM N.O. COUNCIL MEMBERS ARNIE FIELKOW AND STACY HEAD

Fielkow and Head have worked for 24 hours to encourage the administration to allow access to the city earlier.

At a minimum, Orleans should have followed all the other parishes and allowed re-entry as of 6 am Wednesday.

While conditions in New Orleans are not good, electricity is not widely available, and health services are seriously depleted, Cms Head and Fielkow believe that people who need to return, particularly small business owners, should be allowed to make decisions for themselves.

Methinks things are Tier-ing up at City Hall…

When challenged, we know our community responds with heart, with generosity and with grit. If only we had a leader at the head of our city who was up to the quality of its people.

Hundreds of thousands of New Orleans people tonight gathered around radios, sometimes only by candlelight, or around televisions, maybe on cots in gymnasiums or in the blank haven of anywhere motel rooms, waiting for word about when to return home. We got an answer, sort of.

But what we really heard were the squeaks and whistles of a man with suspect credibility trying to substitute empty swagger and self-centered wisecracks for the substance and depth for which we yearn. Mayor Ray Nagin told us to run for our lives before Hurricane Gustav, and heeding him most of us did. But when it came time for his long-awaited address on homecoming, there was none of that urgency.

Realism is greatly appreciated in the assessment of the situation in New Orleans today, but Nagin revealed no clue of the dread and apprehension with which we forced our feet through the evacuation, our relief at the survival of our singular New Orleans life and our anxiety to get back to the homes we have fought so hard to rebuild.

Instead we get bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo about “tiers” and “placards” that few were aware existed prior to this week, defensive allusions to the decisions of other parish administrations and confusing advice out of both corners of the mouth about please-come-back but don’t-plan-to-stay-right-away.

Our community has endured another psychological wallop from this flight from home and the holding-on and waiting-to-see that followed. True leadership should step up to inspire, encourage and thread together our common bonds for whatever comes next.

For an example, I’m turning back many pages of history to Winston Churchill and the words I’ve been unable to shake since Sunday night, the closing of his radio address to the people of France in 1940 after they were overrun by Nazi Germany:
“Goodnight then. Sleep to gather strength for the morning. For the morning will come. Brightly will it shine on the brave and true, kindly upon all who suffer for the cause, glorious upon the tombs of heroes. Thus will shine the dawn.

“Vive la France!

“Long live also the forward march of the common people in all the lands towards their just and true inheritance, and towards the broader and fuller age.”

Maybe I’m puffed up by the grand language, but the gratitude of knowing my home is intact, the relief that I’ll find my neighborhood and favorite places more or less as I left them and that my friends – sooner or later — will be back there with me, gives a stirring feeling.

- Ian McNulty

(Michael Tisserand is the former editor of Gambit Weekly.)

By Michael Tisserand

Among my many old obnoxious Katrina habits that Gustav awakened was this one: offering very little time or patience to people who aren’t clearly obsessed with the present and future condition of New Orleans. It got kind of ridiculous — while living in Chicago for a two-year extended evacuation, I’d give people a little secret test to see if they “got it” before I’d grant them an audience. I’d tell them I came from New Orleans and then listen close, scrutinizing their face in extreme close-up, Larry David-style.

So it was with mixed feelings that, in the middle of my Gustav evacuation back in the Midwest, I learned that Barack Obama was speaking at a Labor Day rally in Milwaukee. I wanted to go, but I didn’t really want to hear about anything except storm surges. The news out of New Orleans was still uncertain when we left our news vigil at the television and drove into the city for “Laborfest,” an annual celebration that featured bad music, good roasted corn, and bingo.

While I waited in line to get into the speech, I started quizzing people who were bedecked in Obama buttons and various union T-shirts: You think he should be here or should he have canceled and gone straight to the Gulf Coast? After all, isn’t McCain getting a free pass to look presidential in Mississippi? Most dismissed the idea as photo-op politics. One woman shrugged off my question and asked me what I’d heard about Sarah Palin’s daughter. I was about to fix her in my old Katrina glare when we were interrupted by a burst of applause….

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The Tier One/Tier Two reentry plan for Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Tammany parishes ain’t exactly receiving reviews du raves….

Adrastos, “Tiers of a Clown”:

Supposedly, some sort of placard exists that would help people re-enter. Unfortunately, C Ray and his inept minions neglected to tell us how to obtain said placards either before Gustav or subsequently. As a business owner, I should in theory be in the third tier and be able to return tomorrow. BUT all I have is my occupational license. And I don’t feel like waving that at some burly guardsman with an automatic weapon. I suppose the info about the re-entry placards is another state secret like C Ray’s schedule.

Huck Upchuck, “Miscellanea”:

I think this is utterly unhelpful. And, furthermore, if they want to have a crush of folks returning all at once, making all of our return trips as unnecessarily painful as the exodus, then wait until later before allowing people to come home. If the situation is as reports indicate, they should let anyone return who wants to return anytime after midnight tonight — with or without power. Some of us have generators, food, fans, and water waiting at home, not to mention our own beds.

The Chicory, “Insurrection Starts Wednesday”:

How will people who were reluctant to leave or who spent 20 hours in traffic supposed to react next time a hurricane blows through? They will damn sure consider this the next time they are asked to leave their homes and possesions for the “mother of all storms.”

From reading the comments on nola.com, I’d say that was a legitimate fear. People already expect horrendous traffic getting back into the city, and the traffic is likely to be horrendous whether they return on Thursday or Friday or whenever the parishes are “opened.” But if there’s a sense that regular residents are being kept out (particularly when others are being let in), a lot of folks will think twice about getting out next time.

Which could end in tears, rather than tiers.

I left Jackson, Miss. around noon and hit I-55 south. Squalls and rain bands along the way, but remarkably little Gustavian damage visible except wet leaves everywhere. Word was that Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Tammany parishes were still “closed,” so I hopped off the interstate and took back roads well before the Louisiana state line.

Listening to WWL-AM the whole way, it was clear that while locals were happy enough to let emergency responders and the like be the first in the city, no one wanted to cool his or her heels any longer than necessary, racking up hotel bills, eating out every meal, and dealing with bored children in a motel room. Caller after caller expressed the same thought: I pay taxes; I understand there’s no electricity; I can fend for myself for a few days — just let me go back to my damn house.

Over and over, St. Tammany Parish president Kevin Davis and Jefferson Parish president Aaron Broussard explained why that wasn’t possible at this time. Jeff Parish seemed to mean it, with serious roadblocks. Furious and near-tearful callers who had been waiting hours at the parish line kept calling in to the station (the Times-Pic has a photo and story here).

Occurred to me, rather grimly, that this was the suburbanite version of the Gretna Bridge incident following Katrina.

Now back in downtown Covington and watching the Bogue Falaya River rise at an alarming rate (some areas in the river’s path have been evacuated as of today). It’s right outside the back door, so I’ve got an eye out.

When I got home, there was a large box turtle on the porch.

That probably can’t be good.

“Get a picture of me with the sign!”

You got it, Hank.

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The Broadmoor Development Corporation and the Free Church of the Annunciation teamed up with a church in Tennessee to safely evacuate 31 special-needs people. Hal Roark, executive director for the BDC, says the 14-hour trip was worth it, but the evacuation and the hurricane threat have taken a toll on the evacuees.

     “People are really stressed, breaking down and crying,” Roark says.

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The Times-Picayune has info about reentry into Orleans Parish, including the news that the city hopes to open on Wednesday to “tier one” people:

On Tuesday, only essential city workers and utility personnel will be allowed back in to the city. On Wednesday, New Orleans will begin welcoming back what Nagin described as “tier one” companies: retailers and other major companies who need to check on their stock and begin preparing to re-open.

While Nagin said citizens trying to re-enter would be stopped and turned around, he did not provide specifics on how many police or national guardsmen would be devoted to enforcing the provision.

Nothing at all in the story about “tier two” — who are they/we? Is there a “tier three”? And when will the lower tiers be allowed back? More to the point: how will they know at the checkpoints who needs to come back to “check on their stock” and who just wants to come home, period?

Is there a secret “Tier One” ID card that nobody told me about?

Varg at The Chicory ain’t happy:

I saw folks leaving with kids and old ladies and everything else in the most miserable looking jalopies who are getting by out there with who knows what finances. There are poor residents in shelters all over the South and “retailers” and “major companies” are going to be given first right of entry so the profiteering can commence? Wow, he really does run the city like a business.

Is Southern Scrap one of the companies being considered for Wednesday reentry? After the danger they put folks’ property in?

Guess what? I sell folk art in New Orleans. I need to check stock and re-open.

Most of us in the New Orleans metro area should be grateful that the storm wasn’t worse for us, and of course there are good reasons to stay out of the way of the people who are working hard to clear roads and restore power. But staying away is an expensive, inconvenient proposition (I’m thankful that I’m not stuck in a hotel room with a couple of bored kids). And New Orleans people are, by and large, not wealthy, nor do they have a surplus of time. For those who are 12 or 14 hours away…how will they know when to hit the road?

I wonder if some people might be so aggravated at being “tier two” folks that they would think twice about leaving the next time someone declared that “the mother of all storms” was on its way. That could be more than inconvenient; it could be tragic.

Edit: Dianne de las Casas at the Story Connection points out that Jefferson Parish has online registration for its “tier” reentry at Jump Start Jefferson. Looks like applicants will need to be on the Jeff tax rolls and meet certain qualifications:

Tier-2 re-entry placards will be issued to businesses that are essential to the return of residents of the parish and/or for the restoration of the economy of the Parish and to pre-approved humanitarian relief agencies. Approved Tier-2 businesses will be provided with a limited number of re-entry placards for damage assessment and recovery teams.

Examples of Tier-2 businesses are fuel distributors, food and grocery stores, pharmacies, insurance companies, health care providers, hardware and building supply stores, facilities with fragile inventories such as, chemical processing and storage, laboratories, etc., large retailers of household goods and construction industry trades (carpentry, electrical, plumbing, roofing, etc.).

“Tiering” seems like a useful plan after a Katrina-type disaster (here’s the equivalent page on the City of New Orleans Web site), but in the aftermath of a storm like Gustav, I think the parishes are going to have trouble keeping people out by, say, Thursday. Folks want to go home.

(And is it just me, or was this “tier” plan not widely publicized before the storms?)