Lafourche ready for storm season

The bad news is that Lafourche Parish has had to battle a few hurricanes in its day. The parish’s citizens have seen first-hand all of the winds and the rains that various storms have packed. The South Lafourche area’s giant earthen levee has been tested by storm surges a few too many times in recent years by storms that have knocked on our doorsteps to visit Louisiana.

But while hurricanes are undoubtedly bad news for all, having to endure them in real-life situations is also somewhat good news to Chris Boudreaux, the parish’s Director of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness.

That’s because with experience to draw from, Boudreaux and his staff know exactly what does and doesn’t work when the area is called into a time of crisis.

So it is for that reason that Lafourche is confident that it is ready for the upcoming months as hurricane season nears its peak months from August-September.

Boudreaux said the parish has its plan already established and is fine-tuning a few specifics here and there to ensure that everyone is ready. But nothing is better than experience when it comes to times of crisis, and Lafourche has that when it comes to battling tropical cyclones.

“It’s unfortunate, obviously, that we’ve had storms before, but those storms and having to endure them have improved a lot of the things that we do,” Boudreaux said. “We’ve fixed plans and made adjustments based on the things that we’ve learned in all of those situations. No one wants to get hit as many times as we have, but in a way, if you get through them, it becomes a fortunate thing because now we think we have a polished plan in place that is able to take care of people when these things happen.”

For Lafourche Parish, hurricane season is actually a year-round thing, according to Boudreaux. Of course, the administrator understands that the actual active seasons lasts from June 1-November 30.

But what he means with his statement is that even when the season is dormant, the parish stays busy working to improve things so that the area can be better prepared in the future.

Such has been the case in the past 12 months, as Lafourche has improved many facets of its infrastructure to be better equipped to combat and battle the winds and rains of a storm.

Boudreaux said he believes the area is better prepared now than it was at this time last year. He said it is Lafourche’s goal to be better prepared 12 months from today as it is now, and into the future.

“We want to keep improving,” Boudreaux said. “We’ve done projects on pump stations. We’ve built some new pump stations. We’re working on designs for a safe room for storm events, and we’re always working on our levees to make them higher and more secure. To us, this is a yearly thing. To us, we work around the clock to make sure that things are in order.”

Boudreaux said that aside from infrastructure, the parish revs up its hurricane talks in the spring so that it can have its full hurricane plan in place by June 1 – the official start of the season in a given year.

He added that this year has been no different, and that the parish’s preparedness plan is complete and in working order.

“We’ve already gone over a lot of the plans that we have in place,” Boudreaux said. “It looks like we should have everything already ready to go in terms of going over the plans and working with all of the different agencies throughout the parish and throughout the state. We’re looking for any gaps or anything that we might find, and if there are any gaps, we will resolve them right away. But everything in our plan has mostly been settled and we’re ready.”

Some of the “gaps” Boudreaux mentioned are basic things any agency would have to deal with. He said that if the area would have a June or July tropical storm or hurricane, those things could be expedited to make the plan fully complete.

“It’s mostly things like shelter training and in-house training,” Boudreaux said. “We have some new personnel, so it’s mostly just showing new personnel how to do different things that may be needed.”

But no matter how precise or detailed a plan may be, it may all be forced to change because every storm is different.

Boudreaux said that Lafourche has contingency plans in place based on whether the area will get a direct hit or whether the storm will miss the area to the east or to the west.

He said that he encourages families in the area to do the same, mapping out evacuation destinations to the west, east and north so that all bases are covered.

“No two storms are the same,” Boudreaux said. “You can prepare for one and be perfect, but if the next storm isn’t coming at the same angle, your old plan that you used isn’t going to matter for that storm.”

Boudreaux added that the biggest concern to Lafourche is storm surge and flooding waters, adding that wind is a secondary threat to the area.

But with a massive levee system in place and polished infrastructure throughout the area, Boudreaux said he is confident that 2014 will go off without a hitch.

Sure, the best hurricane plan is the hurricane plan that never has to be used because storms avoid the area. But the next best plan is one that works and is backed with experience.