Delcambre, Erath spared most serious damage

More than 90 percent of Erath’s residents and 80 percent of Delcambre’s evacuated prior to Hurricane Gustav, memories of Hurricane Rita fresh in their minds. And while most who evacuated are glad they did, all agree Gustav spared the area.

“It wasn’t really that bad,” said Delcambre resident Terry Johnfroe, who chose to stay in Delcambre during the storm. “The house kind of shook a little, but it wasn’t really rockin’ and rollin’. We all got our lives, our health, food and everyone’s sticking together.”

Retired shrimper Loua Segura was wading around in his yard collecting debris Wednesday. Segura has lived in Delcambre for 73 years, most of which were in the same house next to the canal.

Hurricane Rita is “all it took to shake me up,” said Segura, who went to Crowley for Gustav. “I was going to bet everything I had the water wouldn’t get that high (as it did during Rita).”

The water almost reached his rebuilt house when the canal overflowed due to Tuesday’s rains, but Segura’s home did not flood.

Shrimper Timmy Truong rode out the storm alone on his boat, Triplet’s Production.

“We have a generator, food, everything,” Truong said. “Why stay at home? I think next time, I’ll stay with my boat (again). It’s safe. Looks like Delcambre’s Okay. Just water. No damage. Just trees fell down, that’s it.”

Preston Dore and Judy Brewer rode out the storm on their boat, the Sea Express V, where they’ve been living for the past six and a half months.

“I rode out Katrina in a shelter,” Brewer said. “It was better in here. You couldn’t feel the winds or hear the rain.”

Delcambre Chief of Police James Broussard said though riding out the hurricane in Delcambre was “bad for a little while,” damage is minimal — mostly downed trees and carports peeled back by wind.

Mayor Carol Broussard agreed. “Besides the electricity, we’re faring well,” he said.

Erath Mayor George Dupuis said there was little damage and only about 100 residents out of 2,400 re-mained in Erath to ride out the storm.

The only worry as of Wednesday, said Dupuis, was flooding.

Fire Chief Wayne Mouton said the station had seven firefighters on staff throughout the storm and is keeping track of water levels, which are “high-high.”

“It’s sad to say but Rita was almost a practice run-through,” Mouton said.

“The mistakes we made we were able to be ahead of this time.”

The power is also out for 80 percent of Erath’s residents. Sewers and water are running on generator power.

Jude and Amanda Domingue, filling up gasoline cans for their generator at Eddie’s One-Stop in Erath Wednesday, said they are not unboarding any of their windows until the hurricane season “is done,” mentioning Hurricane Ike and Tropical Storm Josephine, which are forming in the Atlantic.

Erath firefighter Mark Hebert was up for two days straight “taking care of all the needs in town.”

“It’s been tough but we made it,” said Hebert, who is losing his voice. “Thank the good Lord we were able to get away from this one.”