Barry curfew draws fire at Parish Council

A curfew called in St. Landry Parish for Hurricane Barry drew criticism at the Parish Council meeting, but it was a non-issue in Eunice.
As Tropical Storm Barry approached with a prediction to become a hurricane, Parish President ordered a curfew from noon July 13 to 6 p.m. July 14.
The first day of the curfew turned out to be mostly breezy and sunny. The second day saw rain.
And on Wednesday, Lisa Vidrine, director of the parish Office of Emergency Preparedness, experienced a couple of stormy reactions from two Parish Council members.
Councilman Wayne Ardoin questioned why the parish curfew was more stringent than in Lafayette Parish where it was from 9 p.m. July 13 to 6 a.m. July 14.
“I don’t feel we need to be looking at what other parishes are doing,” Vidrine said.
Tropical force winds — 40 mph or greater — were forecast for the curfew period, she said.
Council member Harold Taylor said, “I don’t mind having business complaints. When I get priests and preachers calling about Sunday services that’s a different matter.”
Taylor added, “We need to be a little more involved in making these decisions so ar in advance that you can’t change your mind. For heaven’s sake Saturday was sunshine and we had a curfew at noon.”
Vidrine said she did not want to retract the curfew decision.
Taylor said, “We reconsider our decisions here.”
The curfew did have benefits, Vidrine said.
“Louisiana State Police said they didn’t have any accidents in St. Landry Parish while the curfew was implemented. Not one accident,” she said.
Calls were to the 911 system were reduced by 48 percent during the curfew, she said.
Vidrine said enforcement of the curfew was up to local law enforcement.
In Eunice that meant the curfew was not enforced.
“We really didn’t actually enforce it,” Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot said.
“What we were doing was monitoring the local weather conditions. Had the winds become dangerous or damaging type winds or had an increase in tropical storm type winds and we had serious flooding, then we would have started actively enforcing the curfew,” he said.
Most people did observe the curfew, he aid. “Some were still out and about, but the traffic Saturday afternoon was very limited. Most people did observe the curfew and comply with it,”he said.
The curfew did reduce traffic and the number of criminal complaints, he aid.
Fontenot said he consulted with Mayor Scott Fontenot, who agreed on the action.
“I had no intent to set a curfew in the City of Eunice,” the mayor said.
Both said if weather conditions had warranted action they would have enforced the curfew.
The police chief said, “I don’t have a problem with them setting a curfew as long as they leave a little leeway on how were are going to handle it on this end.”
Parish Council member Mildred Thierry said, “I think that we need to admit and realize we were prepared for the worst and God did not allow the worst to happen.”
She added, “It is better to be over-prepared than to be under-prepared.”