Hurricane Laura left downed trees and power lines in Eunice, but spared the city from major damage.
By Friday, Laura’s aftermath began to look like Hurricane Rita in 2005 as vehicles lined up for fuel, food and other supplies.
“Eunice is crazy right now. I’ve never seen this much traffic ever,” Mayor Scott Fontneot said.
“People are coming from all over and they just want something to eat. It is just heartbreaking,” he said.
The hurricane left about 90% of Eunice without power, but Friday the number of locations without power had been whittled down to the hundreds with the expectation that by Saturday most power would be restored.
The city gave out about 20,000 sandbags in advance of Laura, but the storm turned out to be more of a wind event than flooding, Fontenot said.
“We’ve got a lot of trees down all over town. Most of the roads are open and clear. I don’t know of any roads that are impassable. We do have trees that are blocking portions of some roads that haven’t been removed because they are laying on top of some power lines,” he said on Friday.
“As far as flooding issues in Eunice, I don’t know of anybody who flooded. I wouldn’t doubt it if somebody did just based on the amount of water that came down,” he said.
“By the time daybreak hit and everybody was up I know there was no street flooding,” he said.
Gullies and bayous were flowing at maximum capacity, he said.
“Seriously, by the grace of God the people of Eunice were very lucky,” he said.
There are people who suffered losses during the storm, he added. But the damage was nothing compared to what happened west of St. Landry Parish.
On Thursday, Fonenot said he traveled west past Kinder until he couldn’t go any farther.
Pine forests “looked like somebody took their hand and karate chopped all of the trees,” he said.
“I’ve very grateful that we didn’t get that. There is still a lot of recovery left in this town,” he said.
As of Friday, Fontenot said there were no fatalities related to the storm reported in Eunice.
“That’s a great sign,” he said.
He also didn’t know of any rescue situation that occurred during the storm despite a number of residences that had trees falling into them.
The city’s sewer system continued to function throughout the storm. “We still have some lift stations that are down without power, but we have more than half of them that are working,” he said.
In St. Landry Parish, all major roads were open by Friday, according to Van Reed, director of Emergency Preparedness.
“Almost all of the trees in the parish should be picked up or taken care of unless they have a power line associated with them,” he said.
By Friday the power outages were lingering in Eunice, Cankton and Port Barre, he said.
“We really got lucky, I believe,” he said.
At the parish’s 911 building at Opelousas, the highest wind gust was 52 mph, he said.
“They kept talking about 90 mph winds. We didn’t get that,” he said.
“There may have been guest in other areas of the parish like the Eunice area,” he added.
Because of COVID-19, shelters did not open in the parish, which had a voluntary evacuation order.
Reed said if people need evacuation assistance they contact him at 337-351-2467 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The state routing people through Baton Rouge for location in evacuation shelters, he said.
There was a standby plan for food assistance in west St. Landry Parish if power outages continued, he said.
The traffic jams at fuel stations may be eased as Interstate 10 reopens, he said.
Reed said it is important for residents to report their damage through a damage assessment form on stlandrypg.org.
This information not only documents the impact of the storm on individuals, families and businesses, it also assists the parish in qualifying for future federal funding, he stated in a news release.
Cleco, in a news release, warned customers to use ;portable generators safely.
“Please follow the manufacturer’s instructions for proper use of a portable generator,” said James Lass, director of distribution operations and emergency management. “Operate generators in a well-ventilated area, away from combustible material and never run a generator indoors.”
