Communication has been the biggest area of improvement in the field of emergency management since Duval Arthur became St. Mary Parish’s first homeland security director more than a decade ago.
Arthur announced his plans to retire in early 2018 as director of the St. Mary Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
Arthur, 68, of Berwick, became the parish’s first homeland security director in 2004 and then added the role of emergency preparedness director in 2006.
Parish President David Hanagriff will appoint a new director that will then be subject to the approval of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Arthur will help train whoever succeeds him as director.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, federal authorities designated a homeland security director for every parish and county in the country.
Lack of effective communication “was the problem with 9/11,” Arthur said.
“The right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing,” he said. “We’ve hopefully got that knocked out now. We won’t have those problems anymore.”
Officials have continuously updated St. Mary Parish’s emergency operating procedures, communications equipment and its emergency operations center during Arthur’s time as director, he said.
“Communications has been a big challenge, but I think we’ve met that challenge using the grant funds that I’ve acquired through homeland security,” Arthur said.
But Arthur says he’s not alone in the decision-making process. The Parish Emergency Management Advisory Committee makes decisions about how to spend money within the office.
Parish leaders have also changed and improved evacuation procedures for emergencies such as hurricanes or tropical storms, he said.
“We have, now, time to get out,” he said. “We work with the other parishes so when Terrebonne Parish evacuates we would work together so that our people don’t flood their parish and their people don’t flood our parish.”
St. Mary officials have plans in place to coordinate evacuation with other parishes and stagger evacuation, Arthur said.
Arthur hopes his successor will be someone with emergency management experience, including time working at a police department, fire department, sheriff’s office or as an emergency medical professional or military member.
Arthur retired from the U.S. Army in 2009 as a sergeant major with 32 years of service. He was a military police officer and then became inspector general at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans in Belle Chasse.
He was also Berwick police chief for 17 years. Arthur worked for the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office for 17 years, too, and served as chief deputy there.
Arthur, who is serving his third term as a Berwick town councilman, plans to run for mayor in November 2018. Mayor Louis Ratcliff, who’s also in his third term, is term-limited and won’t be able to seek re-election next year as mayor.