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Tangipahoa explosion prompts evacuation
Plan for wetlands restoration advances MRGO project still needs to be funded
BY MIKE SMITH Staff writer
PHOTO PROVIDED By TANGIPAHOA PARISH SHERIFF’S OFFICE
A fire rages Friday at the Smitty’s Supply Inc. oil and lubricants plant near Roseland. The complex is known to store a variety of highly flammable products, according to state regulatory papers.
Former governor among evacuees near plant in Roseland BY DAVID MITCHELL and WILLIE SWETT
Staff writers
An explosion and raging fire at a plant in Tangipahoa Parish known to store highly flammable products prompted an evacuation order within a mile radius on Friday, affecting an elementary school and former Gov. John Bel Edwards, while firefighters battled the towering blaze. An aerial photograph from local authorities showed a portion of the facility in the small community of Roseland engulfed in flames with a dark black plume rising above it. Gov. Jeff Landry said his office was closely monitoring the situation. Firefighters battled the blaze for hours after it was reported just before 1:20 p.m., but by late Friday afternoon, parish
officials couldn’t yet estimate when it would be brought under control. No injuries had been reported. “This is one of the worst things that has happened to our community,” Roseland Mayor Van L. Showers said at the Amite Community Center, which had been set up as a shelter. He added that he was focused on making sure the town’s 960 residents who evacuated have a place to stay. On the steps outside the center, a pastor led a prayer as residents wearing white masks bowed their heads. The plume of smoke could be seen from there, located several miles away, and the air was acrid. School officials evacuated nearby Roseland Elementary
School zone speed cams could restart soon Orleans Parish School Board, city sign revenue deal
BY MARIE FAZIO
After months of negotiations, the Orleans Parish School Board on Thursday signed off on a new agreement with the city to share revenue generated by traffic cameras in school zones. The agreement, which retains a previously agreed upon 60-40 split of net revenues but adds penalties for late payments from the city, will now go before New Orleans City Council. If approved, school-zone traffic cameras can be reactivated, potentially ending a contentious debate that culminated this week with state Attorney General Liz Murrill threatening to pursue criminal charges if
ä See SPEED, page 5A
PAGE 6A
ä See WETLANDS, page 5A
Volunteers continue search for missing boy NOPD criticized for delay in response
BY MISSY WILKINSON Staff writer
Staff writer
WEATHER HIGH 91 LOW 77
STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
Louisiana State Police block off U.S. 51 as smoke rises from ä See EXPLOSION, page 4A Smitty’s Supply Inc. in Roseland on Friday.
An agreement signed Friday by federal and state officials could help advance a stalled plan to restore wetlands destroyed by a notorious southeast Louisiana shipping channel labeled a “hurricane highway” after Katrina, but money must still be approved for the work. The deal comes with the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaching next week and as coastal advocacy groups press the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to move forward on the “The plan for the Mississippi River Gulf communities Outlet, or MRGO. impacted by The agreement the MRGO was signed by the have endured state’s Coastal decades of Protection and Restoration Au- damage. Now thority and the it’s time to Corps, a statement get to work from both agenprotecting cies said. T h e o r i g i n a l our coast and plan in 2012 aimed restoring vital to restore and pro- ecosystems.” tect around 57,000 acres of wetlands MICHAEL HARE, and coastal habi- Coastal Protection tat. It was esti- and Restoration mated to cost $3 Authority billion at the time, executive director though the first phase addressed in Friday’s agreement alone amounted to $1.3 billion. The total cost in today’s dollars is certainly far higher, but the amounts remain to be determined. Friday’s agreement prioritizes around 57 miles of restoration as a first step, focusing on vulnerable shorelines in Orleans and St. Bernard parishes. It sets out a plan for design work. The projects include protection along a stretch of the southeast shore of Lake Borgne from Bayou Dupre to Proctor Point as well as from Lake Pontchartrain to Bayou Chevee. Other work is planned along Lake
New Orleans East resident Marco Hernandez donned rain gear and grabbed a machete on Friday morning as he prepared to search the area’s thicketed marshes, abandoned homes and waterways until sundown. He joined dozens of community members who have STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER done the same since a 12-year-old nonverbal boy vanished last week. Officers with the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Hernandez said his motivations Angola chase team look at a monitor in the back simple: “I have a son.” of a truck as they fly a drone over a woody park in are The search for young Bryan New Orleans East on Monday searching for Bryan Vasquez went into its ninth day as Vasquez, 12, who vanished last week. the New Orleans Police Depart-
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ment weathered criticism over a five-hour lag from when the first call came in and an officer was dispatched to respond. NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said Thursday that the department has launched an internal investigation. A Times-Picayune analysis of NOPD call logs shows the response in Vasquez’s case was not unusual. The department has fielded more than 250 missing child reports so far this year, many with similar response times, the data shows. Vasquez was last seen on surveillance video leaving his Beaucaire Street home at around 5:20 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 14. Though foul play hasn’t been confirmed in Vasquez’s case, police
ä See MISSING, page 5A
13TH yEAR, NO. 11