Tom Dodge
“We are in hurricane season and we want to be ready for any storm that heads our way,” Eunice Mayor Scott Fontenot said at a meeting Thursday concerning Tropical Storm Cristobal.
“I want the council to appoint Robert Johnson as the emergency preparedness coordinator for the city,” Fontenot said. “He can handle the responsibilities of the position.”
St. Landry Parish’s Director of Emergency Preparedness Van Reed addressed the group in the city council chambers.
According to Reed, the emergency operations center would be activated on Friday afternoon monitoring the storm as it moves closer to Louisiana.
“I have reached out to the sheriff’s office and the Red Cross,” Reed said. “Because of COVID-19, there are still guidelines for sheltering which makes it almost impossible for St. Landry Parish to offer a shelter.
“We will watch and react accordingly,” he said. “We will do what is necessary any where in the parish.
“We are not talking about providing a shelter from the storm for those from other parishes, Johnson said. “This is for an emergency evacuation here because of high water flooding – to get people to a dry safe place.”
The Rev. Caleb Simien from Word Ministries said his church building will be available to shelter evacuees if necessary.
Based on the CDC guidelines, the Word Ministries main area should be able to house around 250 people, according to Simien.
“After the flood of 2016, we installed showers and now have washers and dryers,” the pastor said. “We also stocked up on our sheets, blankets, towels and other supplies.”
According to Johnson, 120 people needed shelter after the August 2016 flood, when at least 8 to 10 inches of rain fell over two days.
St. Landry Parish Sheriff Deputy Chief Eddie Thibodeaux said their office has several high water vehicles that could help evacuate residents if any areas around Eunice are flooded.
“We will watch the rain across the parish and go where we are needed,” Thibodeaux said. “We have boats, a dive team as well as a search and rescue team so we are ready to go.”
When city officials give the go-ahead, sand bags will be available at the Northwest Community Center, according to Fontenot.
It will be a fill your own sandbag site with a limit of three bags per door.
“We always seem to have volunteers who help fill bags for others,” Eunice City Marshal Terry Darbonne said. “This community really helps each other.”
Cristobal became the earliest-ever third named tropical storm to form in any Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history on Tuesday.
Last year, the third storm of the season, Tropical Storm Chantal, developed on Aug. 20.
The disturbance first developed as a depression over the Bay of Campeche in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico on June 1, the first official day of hurricane season.