Lafourche Parish learns from previous hurricanes

Through all the negatives of a hurricane, it may be difficult to find any positives.

But after weathering the storms of hurricanes Katrina and Gustav, Lafourche Parish officials are looking to learn from their shortfalls of years past and improve their various hurricane policies.

One of which is evacuating parish residents who utilize sheltersto one specific location so they can all be kept track of.

That’s why the parish completed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Monroe last week to grant the use of local recreation centers to shelter Lafourche Parish citizens.

“Evacuation was done for Gustav, but we didn’t know where [Lafouche residents] were,” said Office of Emergency Preparedness Director Chris Boudreaux. “With this in place, we’ll know exactly where everybody is at, and will be able to connect them together and have control of when they come back.”

Boudreaux added state transportation took residents to a different location than the parish was told for Hurricane Gustav, and residents were sent back to the parish too quickly after Hurricane Katrina.

“Texas kept them for two days after Katrina. When they sent them back we weren’t ready,” said Boudreaux. “I got a call at midnight saying we got five busses coming. They couldn’t stop them to set up a place to receive them, so they could come back when it’s safe and we’re ready to receive them back to the parish.”

Lafourche Parish residents in need of transportation for evacuation can call the Emergency Operations Center at (985) 537-7603 to register.

“Once a year we’ll check the list – usually in June – because if information has changed, it doesn’t pay to have somebody on the list,” said Boudreaux. “I don’t want to send a bus there, and the person’s not there.”

He said the OEP is currently working out a deal with the Department of Heath and Hospitals (DHH) in order to more efficiently evacuate residents with special needs.

“We’ll bring them to DHH in Baton Rouge, and DHH could bring them from there to any special needs shelter in the state of Louisiana, because we need our resources here,” said Boudreaux. “To move people, we can’t go to Alexandria, Shreveport or wherever it’s at and be real effective.”

The director said the state may elect to keep the special needs shelter at Nicholls Staue University open depending on the projected severity of the hurricane.

In the past, Boudreaux said they would be sent to hospitals, and those hospitals would struggle to be able to satisfy the basic needs of most special needs patients.

When the possibility of a hurricane is on the horizon, Lafourche Parish Public Information Director Brennan Matherne said the parish typically opens an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) when the parish president declares a state of emergency.

When this is called, Lafourche Parish officials from around the parish gather in a “war room” in the Mathews Government Complex.

“For hurricanes, it affects everyone, so if someone is not stationed in the EOC at all times, at least a representative is a phone call away that’s stationed at their own location handling their operation,” said Matherne.

In case of a direct hit, Boudreaux said the Lafourche Parish Public Works Department is currently raising levees in Valentine and cleaning drainage ditches throughout the parish.

“Some of the protection will be up before hurricane season, and some will continue going on through the season,” said Matherne. “Our Public Works Department as well as the two Levee Districts will never stop working on levees at any point.”

Many locals are worried the oil in the Gulf of Mexico would rain on southeastern Louisiana while others feel a hurricane may disperse the oil throughout the country and possibly the hemisphere. Both Boudreaux and Matherne agree that no scientist could accurately predict this, and only time will tell.

“Some experts are saying a hurricane would be good; others are saying it would be devastating,” said Matherne. “You could talk to two experts and they would give you completely different answers.”