Port's new emergency center is 'one of a kind'

Work is halfway finished on the Port of Morgan City’s Government Emergency Operations Center, an $11 million, 35,000-square-foot, Category 5 hurricane resistant facility that will be the most advanced, sturdiest of its kind in Louisiana when it opens in late September, Port of Morgan City Executive Director Raymond “Mac” Wade said.
The center is located on La. 182 in Morgan City adjacent to the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium.
It can serve as an emergency command center in the event a hurricane hits the region or for another type of disaster or emergency, Wade said. In addition, officials will use the facility for training purposes to prepare for an emergency, he said.
The actual emergency command center and training area will be located on the second floor of the facility, he said. The second story includes living quarters where officials can stay while they’re working during an emergency, Wade said.
“It will be start-of-the-art the day it opens,” Wade said.
In the event of an emergency, the St. Mary Parish president and the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness would run the facility and coordinate all their activities out of the center, Wade said.
Port and state officials held groundbreaking for the center in January after officially getting approval to use the $7.1 million in state capital outlay funds in October 2014.
The Port of Morgan City put up another $3.9 million of its own funds to build the facility.
The center will have the latest computer systems and will be able to access up-to-date weather and waterway information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Physical Oceanic Real-Time Systems in the Atchafalaya River Bar Channel, Wade said.
The building will have a Touch Assisted Control System, which will integrate all emergency operations systems in the area and allow government agencies to be “on the same page” when responding to emergencies, Wade said.
On Wednesday afternoon, 30 to 40 workers, including electricians, steel workers, plumbers, air conditioning workers, were on site, Wade said.
“This thing’s going to be a showpiece,” Wade said. “It shows we’re putting our money where our mouth is.”
The center will include cameras that state police and the U.S. Army National Guard can monitor during emergencies, Wade said.
On Wednesday, workers were installing cinder blocks for some of the walls to be used for the secure rooms inside the building, Wade said. The building will be protected by a floodwall, which is 10 feet above sea level, Wade said.
Even with the amount of rain workers have had to deal with, the contractor for the project, M.D. Descant of Bunkie, has done a great job to stay on the work schedule, Wade said. To stay on that schedule, they’ve worked on Saturdays and even Sundays to make up for lost time, he said.
Sheet rock installation and painting on the ground floor will probably begin in July, he said.
The downstairs portion of the facility will include space to house at least one governmental tenant, but officials have not yet announced which entity that will be, Wade said.
Port officials are also talking with other organizations about possibly getting a second tenant to operate out of the center on a daily basis, he said.
Room for potential future tenants at the center is also available on the second story of the building, Wade said.
As part of an agreement with the City of Morgan City for the use of some city land in order to build the center, the port is funding the expansion of more paved parking area on the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium grounds.