Hurricane season on parish leaders’ minds

Lafourche Parish President Charlotte A. Randolph said she and the parish government are ready for the hurricane season and are in a position to respond positively should an emergency situation occur.

Terrebonne Parish manager Barry Blackwell also said Terrebonne Parish was as ready as it can be. And the parish’s plan basically dovetails into the state’s hurricane plan.

Randolph also said she and the parish government learned a lot from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

She said they need to be flexible, proactive and reactive. And one guideline doesn’t cut it, because every scenario is different.

“To think you can have one particular guideline to cover all circumstances is certainly not the case,” said Randolph. “You have to be able to respond to many different situations, whether it’s storm surge, whether it’s wind, whether it’s getting people out, whether it’s sheltering people, all those things.”

Blackwell said Terrebonne Parish is emphasizing communication.

“Communication is one of the big aspects. As everybody can remember, when Rita struck communications was one of the key issues,” he said. “So now we have a lot more far reaching use of satellite phones and different communications system.”

The Terrebonne Parish government has also established a remote location n Alexandria in the event of a storm. The government can transfer one of its 800-numbers into the remote location and distribute it to the public and employees.

The phone line is for evacuees to keep them abreast of what’s going on back home and when they can return.

Randolph said the new building codes will make the new buildings stronger and more resistant and the raising of buildings will also help to protect form flooding.

“I think it’s been good they’ve [new building codes] been mandated, but at the same time, I think we’ve had some contractors in the past who’ve certainly saw the need to make things better,” she said.

But as confident as Randolph is, she knows the situation could be better.

“I’ve got a real wish list,” said Randolph.

She said if she could change anything right now to improve the situation, she would have a much stronger coastline and not just patches of land in the midst of water. And she would have higher levees, of course.

Morganza would be built already and a gate would be in place on the Houma Navigation Canal and the La. 1 project would be finished.

And she could keep listing other improvements and protections.

But the best protection for ensuring survival during a powerful storm is simply not being in the area when it hits.

“You can be hopeful and you can feel that you’re prepared, but a storm, certainly of the magnitude of Katrina, particularly what it did to Plaquemines and St. Bernard, all the preparations in the world can’t battle Mother Nature,” said Randolph. “We can brace ourselves and we can build smarter and stronger, but the most important thing is getting people out so that they’ll be safe.”

Blackwell said people need to understand the buffers that have been there over the years, the barriers islands, have deteriorated to a point where a weaker storm that would have had little impact in years past can have a devastating impact now.

“We learned we need to do whatever we can to make the public as aware of the seriousness of the situation as possible,” he said. “When the warning comes and the issue of evacuation arises, people need to evacuate on the side of caution. That’s going to mean in some cases some false alarms or whatever.”

Residents sticking around despite a call for evacuation is always a concern, said Randolph.

She said the local authorities have a comprehensive list of people who need assistance to evacuate. This includes the elderly and the sick. And she said she knows there are people who will never leave, and they know this about those people.

“This is personal responsibility,” said Randolph. “They’re going to make their own decisions and not wait for the government to make it for them. But at the same time, some people need to be prodded.”

She said she and the parish government can’t guarantee they will be able to evacuate the elderly and the sick to Shreveport, but said they can get them to safety through a variety of means to other, closer areas.