Lafourche inmates remain away after water main break

The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office does not know when more than 200 Lafourche Parish Jail inmates will be able to return to the jail, following problems with the facility’s water main on Friday, said Sheriff’s Office spokesman Larry Weidel.

The jail has no water for food preparation, showers or to fight potential fires.

A state of emergency was declared in Lafourche Parish on Saturday so that funds could be released to hire plumbing contractors, Weidel said. The work may take up to a week to complete.

Sheriff Craig Webre said the evacuation, which he referred to as “nothing short of a massive undertaking,” went smoothly. The evacuation lasted around three hours.

Weidel said 148 Lafourche Parish Jail inmates are being housed at Orleans Parish Prison, 35 at Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel near Baton Rouge and 32 in the St. John the Baptist Parish Jail.

Additionally, 33 are at a temporary facility near the Lafourche Parish Jail, or in the trusty dorm, and 24 female inmates are in the St. Charles Parish Jail. A few inmates are being housed at the Terrebonne Parish Jail.

Webre said in a news release that state judges in the 17th Judicial District covering Lafourche Parish are using house arrest and releasing non-violent offenders with short terms left as stopgaps to decrease the number of inmates.

He said the break in the water line is “symptomatic of the chronic problems everyone in the parish knows exist in the jail. We have an old facility that has reached the end of its usefulness.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.