Four months after the storm, Associated Terminals president David Fennelly reflects on the events immediately following the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. "It was surreal. You had choppers landing in the terminal. You had the Navy and National Guard there. Our office building had been commandeered by the SWAT team from St. Bernard Parish. There were times when your mind would slip away and you would think this is not Chalmette Slip".

When Hurricane Katrina's eye made landfall at Buras, La., just 60 miles southeast of the Associated Terminals facilities at the Port of St. Bernard, Fennelly knew life would change for the company and employees. What he didn't know at the time was how lives would be forever changed.

In anticipation of Katrina's arrival, Associated Terminals management team triggered their hurricane emergency plan. The terminal at Chalmette Slip was evacuated and equipment was either secured or removed from the facility. "We totally evacuated from Chalmette. We did not have any people at the terminal. We have a very good and stringent evacuation plan which worked very well. It secures all of the equipment, all of the cargo, all of our property. With a storm this serious, we weren't going to have anybody remain at the facility," said Associated Terminals vice president Cy Hill.

Even though Katrina blew through the terminal and surrounding area with winds of up to 145 miles per hour – Associated Terminals facilities were largely undamaged. "Overall, the facility itself sustained very minor damage," said Hill.

Chalmette Slip Was High & Dry

A levee which was designed to keep the Mississippi River's flood water out of residential areas protected the terminal from storm surge.

"The rising floodwaters that destroyed so much of St. Bernard Parish were retained by the levee system that made Chalmette Slip one of the only high and dry places left in the parish of St. Bernard," said general cargo terminal manager Barry Hoth. "From an equipment point of view, none of our equipment was damaged by the storm." And it was this high and dry state that turned Chalmette Slip into "Camp Katrina".

 After storm surge inundated St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, the high ground at Chalmette Slip became a staging site for rescue operations and a temporary home for thousands of evacuees.

"The day after the storm, evacuees started coming into the terminal by the hundreds," said Fennelly. "Some were aware that the facility was a location that might be dry, but word had quickly spread through emergency rescue people, as well as the sheriff's department, that this area was dry and could be used as an area to bring people to safety and stage them for further evacuation."

In three days following Katrina, 1,500 to 2,000 evacuees arrived at Chalmette Slip, the terminal area and warehouse. An Associated Terminals barge and charter vessel were commandeered and used to ferry evacuees to high and dry ground across the Mississippi River at Algiers.

Fennelly recalls the scene, "As we stood there with a satellite phone… standing there trying to get a signal with Black Hawks flying overhead, you just couldn't believe it!"