September is tropics time, make your plan!

It all happens like clockwork this time of year. Newspapers – like this one – put out news stories that inform reader s that this is the busiest time of the year for tropical development. In our stories, we urge everyone to get a plan for multiple directions of evacuations.

We’ve been blessed for quite a few years now.

Storms have threatened but turned. This week’ at press-time on Monday, it looked like Gordon was going to do the same – offering little more than a scare to our residents, a live test to our area’s hurricane plans in place.

But one day, our number will be up and it will be time to act.

And we don’t want anyone in our area to be caught without warning when that time conies, though hope fully. it ‘ still many moons away.

Weather experts love to focus on predictions and forests for the year. They love to give tallies far how many storms there will be and how many landfalls will be made in the United States or abroad.

That’s good information to have, hut it paints just a small piece of the picture.

Anyone who lives hare in the Bayou Region knows, you don’t have to have a busy season to have a disastrous season.

Heck. It can be a really light season for disaster to strike.

All it takes is one to cause problems.

If that one storm puts a big bulls-eye on your community, the misery will the certain. If s not always the wind or the rain that make things bad overall It can he what happens afterward, when the electricity is out and houses swelter Gas pumps remain closed and water systems shut down. It’s not a crisis until it happens to you. And when it does you will hope that you planned.

We are blessed locally.

Our local leaders do an outstanding job delivering information to the public and making sure that everyone has the supplies that they need to be safe.

When outside of season,, work is dome non-stop to improve our storm systems locally.

Lafourche’s levee is massive and has protected its citizens for decades. In Terrebonne, we’ve lagged a little bit behind, but are catching up quickly. This area is better prepared for storms than ever before and that is a credit to parish government but also to our Local representatives in Baton Rouge and also our national delegation in Washington.

But don’t just put blind trust in the systems we have in place, because even the experts will tell you that the perfect Storm will defeat them all. And if/when that perfect storm comas, the safety of your family, friends and finances will all likely depend on the things that you did in the months leading up to the storm to be ready.

Don’t just make a plan. Make several plans. Plan what you will do if that car doesn’t start Plan what you will do if you don’t have that hotel money. Check and double-check an what you have done to make things safer.

We know it sounds preachy. But we say it because we cure.

Speaking of caring, we need to give some credit here to Earl Eues. Terrebonne-:-TOHSEP director. For many years Earl bus been riding up and down the bayous, looking for danger looking for solutions. Trying to plan for the unplannable. And it sounds like they are getting a lot better at it

Pariah President Gordon Dove, who can rattle off statistics about water levels and pump pressures like a mathematician, deserves credit for letting the professionals do what they do, and for giving them the resources they need.

Sheriff Larpenter and his team are storm veterans, ready-to take on the worst. He has bought equipment out of Ma budget that keeps us even more ready.

But in the end it all really comas down to you and to all of us individually. If you haven’t made your own plan, make it today. If a much easier to make clear decisions when it is all in the advance-maybe months in the advance – of howling winds, driving rains and stabbing debris.

Be sure to put cash an the list because ATMs may not be working when you need them the most. And also make plans for the pets. As you will learn in these pages there are Borne good options you can choose from. As with people, it is easier to plan for pets in advance of the emergency.

Those whose job it is to keep us all safe have undoubtedly done their part.

We also have to take responsibility for ourselves and those we care about.

It means getting prepared. It means preparing to start. And it all starts now.

On Monday, as we put this issue to bed, it sure looks like Gordon will spare as its worst fury. At worse, he will deliver as a body blow.

But the next time, we may not be so lucky.

Use this test run as a warning.

And be 100 percent ready if it happens again in the future.