Atmos Energy offers advice for natural gas safety during hurricane season
According to Healthline, a website providing information on health and biology, natural gas exposure can cause a range of health problems. These can include headaches, dizziness and nausea caused by natural gas displacing oxygen in the air. In severe cases this can cause asphyxiation. Those with existing health conditions may have worse symptoms.
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According to Atmos Energy, the following safety measures should be followed:
If gas appliances are underwater, do not operate the appliances. Contact Atmos Energy or a service professional to conduct a safety inspection.
During severe weather or natural disaster, do not turn off natural gas at the meter even if evacuations are issued.
If you smell gas, immediately leave the affected area. From a safe distance, call either 911 or the Atmos Energy 24-hour emergency response line at 866-322-8667.
Never try to find the source of a gas leak.
Do not use a mobile phone or anything that might cause a spark, such as a generator.
If a natural gas meter is damaged or a gas line is exposed, immediately leave the area and call the Atmos Energy 24-hour emergency response line.
Know where your natural gas meter is located. Make sure it's visible and free from trash and debris. Mechanical equipment used to clean up after a storm may damage the meter if it is hidden.
Natural gas pipelines are mostly underground but can be damaged by uprooted trees and shifted foundations. After a storm, call 811 to have the location of underground utility lines marked, as gas service lines could become tangled.
Atmos Energy customers experiencing a natural gas outage or service interruption should contact the company's customer service number at 888-286-6700.
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Atmos Energy offers advice for natural gas safety during hurricane season
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Tremé resident and hairdresser Lynette Boutte survived the devastation of Hurricane Katrina through chest-deep waters and the scorching concrete of the Claiborne Bridge. She's now an advocate for the restoration of the culture and heritage of New Orleans Photograph by National Geographic (Top) (Left) and Photograph by National Geographic (Bottom) (Right) When Boutte, a hairdresser, was ready to open her own beauty salon in 1995, she searched for a place close to her roots. She found a building just around the corner from her family's place that had once been a ballroom turned grocery store, then a beauty salon in the 1950s. In the back, a small residence—added in the 1920s after the neighborhood's first major flood—became her home. Before Katrina, Boutte remembers a neighborhood full of community spirit. Walking from her mother's house, it was customary to stop and greet neighbors along the way, something she says has since faded. 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'Me and my dad came back from California to help," Alexander says. "But they didn't want local people doing the work. We were living in FEMA trailers, watching guys from out of state getting paid $35, $40 an hour just to sit in trucks. Locals like me—people who wanted to rebuild—could've used those jobs to invest in properties in our neighborhoods.' Abandoned cars and homes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Photograph by Michael S. Lewis/Nat Geo Image Collection People walking flooded New Orleans streets after Hurricane Katrina. Photograph by Michael S. Lewis/Nat Geo Image Collection Alexander watched the New Orleans he once knew and loved turn into a different place entirely. 'When I was growing up, neighborhoods like the Lower Ninth Ward and Seventh Ward were mostly African American,' says Alexander. 'They were in locations close to hospitals and what people needed. After Katrina, they tore down the projects and replaced them with mixed-income housing. Most of the people who lived there before weren't allowed back in.' Boutte also watched homes disappear—not because they were damaged beyond repair, but because the people who owned them couldn't afford to fight for them. Like her neighbors, she is still approached by people offering to buy out her property for a higher price. 'Like I told them, they can't get it from me,' she says. The city that pulls you back For years, it felt Alexander's mother, who passed away shortly after he returned from California, was still tethering him to New Orleans. But in 2019, he felt like he had accomplished all he came back to the city to do—from renovating the trailer his late mother bought to hosting open mic nights in the city. It was his mother's voice in his head that pushed him to make his move to Texas. 'As I was in reflection and prayer, I heard my mom say 'You did all you can do, so it's time to move on. You could always come back home, you know, but don't sit here and be mourning for me.'" Although Alexander left Louisiana for Texas, the city continues to leave its mark on him. 'I came for Good Friday this year,' he says. 'I was supposed to stay two weeks. I stayed six. That's the hold the city has on you.' The trauma of Katrina still echoes through the streets of New Orleans, but so does the strength of its people—through Second Line Sundays, in the smell of red beans on Mondays, in the generations of families still rooted in place. 'I think in the next year, we're going to see another influx of people that left that's going to be coming back after realizing there is no place like New Orleans,' Boutte says. Nearly 20 years later, New Orleans is still healing, and its people are still returning. 'My mom used to say New Orleans is a boomerang,' Boutte says. 'You come here, and trust me, you're coming back.' National Geographic's five-part documentary series, "Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time," is streaming on Disney+ starting July 28.
