Tom Dodge
Van Reed’s first day on the job as the director of Emergency Preparedness and public information officer for the St. Landry Parish Government was March 9.
The very next week, Reed was thrust into the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis as it crept closer to the parish.
“We declared the emergency on March 16,” Reed said. “But we had been working on a plan since the governor’s office had made their announcement on the Friday before.
Reed said his first meeting concerning the virus was with community leaders to discuss the distribution of food for St. Landry Parish schools and then it shifted to how to handle the issues with the homeless and how to handle meals for the elderly.
“With the number of cases being so low in the parish it hasn’t really affected us yet as it has in New Orleans,” Reed said. “But we still need to take it serious because it is only a matter of time before it increases as testing is ramped up.”
Reed said Opelousas General Health System opened a call center drive for COVID-19 testing unit Friday morning, but it is open by appointment only.
Only those who have been screened and scheduled are allowed to visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Call the hot line 337-678-4705 for questions related to COVID-19.
“You need to stay at home,practice social distancing and wash your hands frequently,” was Reed’s advice to battle the virus.
“It has proven to work in other areas and if residents of the parish follow the stay-at-home mandates, hopefully we will get past this real soon.”
Reed said the parish-wide curfew is to help control the virus and flatten the curve as the medical professionals have called it.
Reed is spearheading the parish’s incident command team as the state of emergency was declared last week and is in charge of the disaster relief and recovery.
“We are constantly in contact with FEMA and the governor’s Office of Homeland Security,” Reed said. “We are monitoring surge rates and hospital number of beds. We are checking who is testing and how many test kits they have available.”
Reed said watching what is happening in the New Orleans area and the virus has helped the parish officials prepare for what could happen here.
“We want to obtain as many supplies as we can so we are able to cover if a surge should happen,” Reed said. “But that is a problem — like finding personal protective equipment for law enforcement personnel and hospitals — because this is not a three-parish problem, this is a national crisis.”
Reed was public relations director at LSU Eunice for nearly 14 years before moving over to parish government, and he said the experiences at LSUE helped him be ready for what he is facing now.
I was trained in public relations and journalism so that is in my background,” Reed said. “I am used to what happens at a press conference.
“I learned problem solving and working with people at LSUE,” he said. “I was part of the command team at LSUE that handled emergency preparedness situations.
“Handling what happens with a natural disaster like a hurricane was easier than what we are facing in the parish today,” he said. “You knew when and where the storm was going to hit. With the coronavirus, no one knows what to expect tomorrow.
“There are starting to be more cases in the parish and we hope people realize it is serious, quarantine themselves and obey the order,” Reed said. “We don’t want to have to call out the sheriff on people if we find a non-essential business is open.”