State departments are spread thin with flooding

In response to record levels of flooding across south Louisiana, state offices in 27 parishes were shut down on Monday and Tuesday as essential personnel turned their attention to ongoing search and rescue operations.

Enforcement agents at the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries had already rescued nearly 3,000 people as of Monday morning, having begun its efforts at around 4 a.m. on Friday of last week. The department’s agents had also conducted rescue missions for 566 animals during the same timeframe.

Gov. John Bel Edwards, meanwhile, has been working with the federal government to expand the major disaster declaration that was issued Sunday evening. It initially included East Baton Rouge, Livingston, St. Helena and Tangipahoa parishes.

“This is an ongoing event, and we are confident that every available state and federal resource will be brought to bear,” Edwards said. “I fully expect that more parishes will be added to the declaration on a rolling basis.”

Edwards said on Monday morning that he had included all of the affected parishes, stretching west into Acadiana, in his office’s latest request to the federal government.

The governor is actually a flood victim himself; the basement of the Governor’s Mansion received chest-high waters and electricity had to be cut off, forcing a relocation of the Edwards family.

Officials at the Department of Health are also overseeing a separate declaration of a public health emergency that was released over the weekend that temporarily suspends licensure requirements for emergency medical technicians.

With floodwaters expected to rise again along rivers and creeks as the upstream floods flow south, state officials consider this an ongoing crisis and the National Weather service said areas in Ascension, East Baton Rouge and Livingston will remain at risk until the end of the week. Campbell defers to quadriplegic Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell turned down an invitation to a U.S. Senate forum that’s being organized this week by the Pelican Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors.

But he didn’t leave the group empty-handed.

“We are respectfully requesting that you allow Derrick Edwards, the first quadriplegic to run for U.S. Senate in Louisiana, and a man for whom Commissioner Campbell has the utmost respect, to participate in the debate in his place,” Mary-Patricia Wray, Campbell’s communications director, wrote in an email reply to the invitation.

Edwards, a Tulane grad who was injured in a high school football game in 1989, met Campbell recently at a New Orleans event and expressed frustration over not being invited to participate in forums.

Campbell, in turn, promised to help him. The Campbell campaign said Edwards was not being offered as a surrogate, but rather as a replacement candidate to talk about his own platform.

A spokesperson for the local ABC chapter, however, wrote later in an email to Wray that the venue had been changed and that the number of forum participants had to be cut as a result.

PSC race underway earlyEven though the 2nd District of the Public Service Commission isn’t technically an open seat, Dr. Craig C. Greene of Baton Rouge is already campaigning boldly. And he has Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, joining him on the trail. Riser introduced and essentially endorsed Greene during a meeting of the Lafayette Parish School Board two weeks ago.

Greene, an orthopaedic surgeon, told the local elected officials that he’s also a former youth paster.

“So I’ll keep it to under 30 minutes and I won’t pass the plate,” he said.

Not interested in the seat is Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, who said recently he has no intentions to seek the post that would be vacated by his childhood friend Scott Angelle, should Angelle win his bid for the 3rd Congressional District.

Baton Rouge Metro Councilman Joel Boe, who did not qualify for re-election last month, has been gearing up for the real run as well.

Looking at it or thinking about it are former GOP Rep. Joe Harrison of Napoleonville and Rep. Nancy Landry, R-Lafayette.Governor involved in another PSC electionNever one to miss a good political fight, Gov. John Bel Edwards has thrown in with Mary Werner in the PSC’s 4th District that spans northeast Louisiana and small portions of Acadiana.

That race is on the ballot this fall.

The governor will be a special guest at a Werner fundraiser on Aug. 26 in Lake Charles.

Edwards has also endorsed Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell for the U.S. Senate, so there may end up being some synergy with the Werner campaign as the primary draws near.

Mike Francis of Crowley, Reldon Owens of Alexandria and Patrick Richmond of Glenmora are also running. All three are Republicans.

All four PACs operated by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry have endorsed Owens, a LABI board member and executive with Diamond B Construction.They Said It“The American dream is not about being a Kardashian.”—Gus Rantz, a candidate for the 3rd Congressional District, in The Advertiser “We would like to warn residents that walking around the parish jail at night is dangerous, and wearing a cape and mask while doing so is extremely dangerous…”— West Feliciana Sheriff’s Col. Randy Metz, in a press release on the “Pokemon Go” phenomenon sweeping the nation

 

About Jeremy Alford 227 Articles
Jeremy Alford is an independent journalist and the co-author of LONG SHOT, which recounts Louisiana's 2015 race for governor. His bylines appear regularly in The New York Times and he has served as an on-camera analyst for CNN, FOX News, MSNBC and C-SPAN.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply