Terrebonne officials think smart with storm looming

Lafourche’s levee system has a nice ring to it
June 14, 2017
Lafourche, Champagne prepared for storms
June 14, 2017
Lafourche’s levee system has a nice ring to it
June 14, 2017
Lafourche, Champagne prepared for storms
June 14, 2017

Terrebonne Parish emergency managers say they are ready for challenges this year’s hurricane season might bring, maximizing use of available technology while planning as well for use of tried and true logic for plans.

Major levee projects have been completed, offering an extra measure of security.

But managers say they’re not chancing risk, and that you shouldn’t either.


“Morganza will be a completely closed system before the end of the month,” said Earl Eues, the parish’s emergency operations director. “That means there is flood protection from a hurricane surge. The protection is for a 10 to 12 foot surge, but it’s better than what we had ten years ago.

Eues also repeated an important caveat that Lafourche Levee District director Windell Curole has repeated many times in the past.

“The levee system was built to protect property and not lives,” Eues said. “It’s just like when we raised your house, it was to protect your property and not your life.”


Evacuation orders, Eues stressed, must be heeded for safety’s sake. Movement of people out of the parish, and making for an orderly transition when people return, are the key tasks his agency wishes to accomplish, with safety the highest priority at all times.

A new emergency operations center will be opened up in the event of emergencies, with state of the art equipment helping to keep a focus on potentially dangerous storms early on. The center can handle punishment from storms through Category Five. Sheriff Jerry Larpenter, who will monitor storms and handle his own agency’s operations at the Terrebonne Parish courthouse, said he’s ready.

“We maintain our big trucks and five tons all year,” Larpenter said. “We check all the equipment we have and we know our responsibilities.”


Larpenter said he approaches all hurricane seasons with concerns, but that this year is one he sees as particularly important. The El Nino weather system that has helped protect this part of the world from storms is crumbling, and forecasts call for a particularly busy season.

“We never had a Category Four or Five storm hit here in my lifetime,” Larpenter said. “With a storm that strong all bets would be off. We’ve based on what people have told us seven of eight homes would have water in them, and the surge would go over our protection levees. But with the work they have done on all the levees we know the levees will help.”

One tool that residents will find of use is Terrebonne’s alert system, which allows user-controlled levels of notification and important messages direct to a cell phone.


Elders and people with special needs must contact their local senior center, the Terrebonne Council on Aging or the Terrebonne Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness now to to get signed up for services including transportation to emergency parish pickup points. In some cases arrangements will have to be made with the Louisiana Department of Health.

Pet owners should know that their feline and canine companions can be kept on the lap. For dogs too large to be handled that way, plans are in place for transport of dropped off and checked in canines in carriers to Monroe, Terrebonne’s authorized reception city.

Larpenter said he has a particular concern this year, that with financial times bad as they are, people will hesitate to evacuate because they can’t afford to stay in a hotel at a safe location.


“People have backup money when times are good,” Larpenter said. “Not when 13,000 people have lost their jobs. People living check-to-check need to save a little bit, even a little bit at a time. Back up some emergency money and if the storm never comes, use it for Christmas presents.”

Hurricane Guide