Hurricane Ivan Puts a Scare Into the Big Easy

Tradeshow attendees forced to hide out from the storm in local hotels

By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 9/27/2004

Hurricane Ivan cried wolf to New Orleans.

The largest U.S. city below sea level narrowly avoided catastrophe as the hurricane, projected to come ashore dangerously close, veered east and hit land more than 150 miles away between Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla.

Damage along the storm's path included smashed windows at the Marriott Mobile. While the Pensacola Civic Center was being used as a shelter, the facility lost sections of its roof, including an air-conditioning unit that landed on a car.

When New Orleans officials urged an evacuation, predicting 50,000 deaths due to 20 feet of flooding from a direct hit by the Category 5 storm, the mass exodus of residents and visitors clogged freeways. In the resulting chaos, travelers missed their flights, leading to sparsely-filled outbound planes.

More than half of the 16,000 people attending or exhibiting at the Natl. Safety Council Congress & Expo were forced to remain in the city. Many weren't able to reschedule flights after the Sept. 13—15 show at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center closed early. Half of the show's 700 exhibitors couldn't finish move-out from the 150,000-square foot showfloor after local laborers fled the city.

"Frankly, it was very difficult to get local labor in here," said NSC spokesman John Ulczycki, who, along with about 75 other NSC staff members from Illinois and Washington, D.C., rode out the storm hunkered down on top floors of two New Orleans hotels.

Morial center employees and their families camped out at the facility, and the Louisiana Superdome was turned into a shelter. "There weren't many options" to get out of the city, Ulczycki said. "It took people five hours to go nine miles. People were literally stranded on the highway."

But the show's masses of safety directors and emergency response technicians were relatively calm, he added. With a Natl. Weather Service booth monitored by a meteorologist, event attendees closely watched the storm's course transform from landing in Florida to heading directly for them.

"This is a group that probably took it in stride," he said. "They often deal with this kind of thing." Ironically, one of the show's Sept. 13 sessions was entitled "Disaster Preparedness at Colleges and Universities."

Following minor flooding and power outages in New Orleans, the 92nd annual NSC show, No. 177 on the Tradeshow Week 200, officially started its move-out from the Morial center on Sept. 18 after local labor became available.

The center sustained no damage, said Sabrina Written, the facility's communication director. Written said the hurricane caused her facility's staff to dramatically restructure their mindsets. "Anything of that magnitude causes everyone to pause," she said. The New Orleans Dental Conference, scheduled for Sept. 15–18 at the center, was canceled.

Despite rare threats like the hurricane, Ulczycki said attendees enjoy New Orleans, where the event is staged every four to five years. The NSC's 1985 show took place during Hurricane Gloria. "I think our groups love to come to New Orleans, apparently," he added.

Hurricane Ivan, the third to strike the United States in five weeks, may not be the last for the southeastern United States. Before hurricane season ends Nov. 30, the country could be faced with "anywhere from four to six additional storms," AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Ken Reeves said. "We would expect as many as three storms to form between late September and early October."

The reasons for the overly active hurricane season are complex, involving cyclic water temperatures and the absence of El Nino, Reeves said. The fact that August 2004 was the most active August since 1995 is key, he added, increasing the chances of hurricane landfalls for the next six to 10 years.

But, Reeves pointed out, that shouldn't cause show planners to avoid Southeast facilities. "Your area may be very susceptible to tornadoes, but never have one touch down in your neighborhood," Reeves reasoned.

The 2004 hurricane season has sidetracked many tradeshows, mostly throughout Florida, including the near-250,000 sq. ft. Premiere Orlando, No. 142 on the TSW 200, at Orlando's Orange County Convention Center.

Several other TSW 200 shows will take place in Southeast facilities before Nov. 30, such as WEFTEC.04, set for Oct. 2–6 at the Morial center; and the American Dental Assn. Annual Session, scheduled Sept. 30–Oct. 3 at the OCCC.

Jim Donovan, ADA exhibit manager, said his staff diligently tracked Hurricane Jeanne's path in the Atlantic and reassured the show's 30,000 pre-registered attendees every few days. "Obviously it's a huge concern," he said. "The meteorologists can't even predict where these things are headed."

The fact that the show, projected to fill more than 200,000 net sq. ft., is taking place three weeks earlier than usual, concerns Donovan and his staff, he said, considering that hurricanes are less likely toward the end of the season. "It's definitely in the front of the staff's mind to move for later dates in the Southeast area (for future tradeshows). We're kind of kicking ourselves that our dates are not as late as usual."