Local man helps Louisiana brace

for Hurricane Dean

By LAUREN L. DILLARD

Of the News-Register

As Hurricane Dean slammed Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula with 165-mph winds this morning, McMinnville was contributing to preparations for the worst in Louisiana, which lies just across the Gulf of Mexico.

The Federal Emergency Management Association and American Red Cross are working to ready themselves for a landfall slightly to the north of that predicted earlier, and thus closer to low-lying parts of South Texas and Louisiana.

In keeping with that, longtime McMinnville resident Jeff Kresner, director of emergency services for the Willamette Chapter of the American Red Cross in Salem, arrived in Louisiana on Sunday to begin helping with coordination between his agency and FEMA.

"It's what I'm trained to do," Kresner said. "That's what the Red Cross is all about."

The agency's mission is to provide aid to those in need. And that includes being proactive in helping people in a vulnerable location prepare when a potential natural disaster looms.

Kresner has military training in emergency management, supplemented with extensive experience working with FEMA and the Red Cross. Besides, said his wife, Karen, "He tends to be just a little bit of a workaholic."

Karen Kresner said it's unusual for him to go into a storm area in advance. He was involved in the clean-up in New Orleans and Baton Rouge after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area, but wasn't dispatched until afterward.

But she said she's not overly concerned about his safety. "I think God will take care of it," she said.

The first hurricane of this year's Atlantic season, Dean reached Category 5 when it hit the Yucatan Peninsula, making it the most intense Atlantic storm to make landfall in two decades. Category 5 hurricanes are capable of generating storm surges exceeding 18 feet, according to the National Weather Service.

The Associated Press said Mexico's state oil company, Pemex, already had evacuated 14,000 offshore employees from the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico. And it said at least 40,000 tourists had evacuated the Cancun area.

The Yucatan Peninsula helps separate the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea.

While Dean is still expected to make landfall on the peninsula's southerly, Caribbean side, it figures to lash South Texas and neighboring Louisiana with high winds and heavy rains. It could even wheel about and strike them a direct blow.

"There are still concerns in the state of Louisiana and Texas that once Dean hits the gulf, that it could do a left-hand turn," Jeff Kresner said. He said it's happened before.

The Associated Press said residents of Texas' Cameron County had already been urged to evacuate, just in case.

This is the ninth time Kresner has drawn a national disaster assignment.

The Willamette Chapter's main chore is to respond to local emergencies, including fires. While he is helping coordinate the disaster response in Louisiana, another staffer will be filling in for him, with the assistance of a part-time employee.