Parish President V.J. St. Pierre feels that the parish did a good job before, during and after Hurricane Gustav, though there are some things he hopes are improved next time around.
“It went really well,” St. Pierre said. “I was pleased with the performance of all of our departments. Everyone knew what they were doing and they got the job done.”
St. Pierre was also impressed with Entergy’s quick response.
“I thought Entergy did a great job,” he said. “They had 800 people in here the next day after the storm, and after five days, 90 percent of the parish had power. They had originally thought it would take seven to 10 business days to get full power restored.”
However, St. Pierre wasn’t too happy with the lodging for the parish’s public works employees.
“I was disappointed that we didn’t have adequate facilities to house our public works employees,” he said. “They had to be housed at the old Landry school and there weren’t enough showers or anything like that. I’d like to improve the housing in the future.”
St. Pierre also felt that there weren’t enough supplies delivered by the federal government.
“I wish we could have gotten more MREs and other rations,” he said. “Still though, we are delivering ice to Killona, Ama and some of the older areas of the parish.”
The parish was lucky that it didn’t experience any major flooding, but St. Pierre thinks Hurricane Ike could pose a greater threat.
“We had a six foot storm surge on the East Bank and a three foot storm surge on the West Bank,” he said. “Ike looks like it might affect the water more.”
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