BATON ROUGE, La., June 20 (UPI) -- Louisiana officials say they disagree with a report contending the state's schools and daycare centers aren't ready to evacuate children in a disaster.
The non-profit group Save the Children said in a report that Louisiana is one of 11 states lacking evacuation plans for schools and daycare centers, and written disaster procedures for schools. But state officials said Friday those assertions were off base, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported.
In a joint statement, state Education Superintendent Paul Pastorek and Mark Cooper, director of the Governor's Office of Homeland Security, said the state Education Department "requires every district to have an emergency preparedness plan for any type of disaster."
"At the state level, we've been proactive to ensure that every person in our state has the tools, resources and information they need to be prepared during any type of disaster -- natural or man-made," they said.
Save the Children spokeswoman Erika Viltz said the group called each state to see whether disaster plans were in place as of June 10, The Times-Picayune said.
