St. Mary evacuation key for hurricane results

Four days after Hurricane Gustav passed through West St. Mary Parish, parish officials say the area is slowly returning back to normal.

Duval Arthur, director of the St. Mary Office of Emergency Preparedness, said as of Thursday, 40 percent of power has been restored to Franklin and Baldwin, and he expects that number to rise significantly today after extra crews were brought in Thursday.

The post office in Franklin is open for residents to pick up mail, though delivery service has not returned, Arthur said.

Debris clean-up began Thursday, and Arthur said trash pickup will resume Monday.

The majority of damage from the storm came from shingle and roof damage, Arthur said, adding a tornado hit a trailer on Louisiana Highway 7 and ripped the roof off.

Almetra Franklin, director of the St. Mary Community Action Agency, said one family’s home caught fire when electricity was restored, but the residents were not home when the fire happened.

“Overall, we fared very well,” Arthur said. “There were no fatalities or injuries, and we got 80 to 85 percent of the parish evacuated. I think there were no injuries or fatalities because so many people evacuated.”

The parish assisted about 1,500 people in evacuating, and Arthur said he planned to request the state begin bringing the evacuees home.

Some who were evacuated through the parish became ill during the storm and had to be brought to Shreveport hospitals, Arthur said.

“Unfortunately, those people who got sick will be delayed in coming back,” Arthur said.

Stores are beginning to reopen, and Arthur said the parish and state have set up two sites, the Franklin Recreational Center and the Baldwin Sacred Heart Catholic Church to hand  out ice, water, Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) and tarps.

Louisiana First Lady Supriya Jindal was staged at Blockbuster in Franklin Thursday to assist in giving out supplies to returning residents.

St. Mary Parish schools will reopen Wednesday, and Arthur said residents are welcome to return home, though not all services have returned.

Franklin said residents are calling because they want to come home.

“But 60 percent of the area is without services, and if too many people come home too soon it could burden the city,” she said.

Franklin said despite the challenges in getting people evacuated and the slow return of city services, the action agency and the area as a whole were “very blessed.”

“The agency fared very, very well,” she said. “We will reopen Monday, and are ready to hit the ground running with recovery services.”

The agency will be ready to assist residents in filling out Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance applications online, and will also be in contact with the state on how to get people who were financially burdened by the storm on emergency food stamps.

The agency also will seek emergency temporary housing for residents whose homes suffered major damage from Gustav, Franklin said.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “But now we’ll be here to try and make sure everyone’s comfortable."

With more tropical disturbances moving toward the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, Franklin said it is important to look at what was done for Gustav and ensure the system had no flaws.

“We have to make sure to plug any gaps that might have occurred during Gustav because of the depressions around the Gulf,” she said.