NEW ROADS, La. (BRPROUD) – Tropical storm winds with the possibility of hurricane gusts. Those are the conditions officials in Pointe Coupee Parish are expecting, and that’s what Parish President Major Thibut is preparing for.
“This has been a very rare strange year. So we deal the hand that’s been dealt,” Thibut says.
The parish has been preparing for a big storm for months. It’s been an overactive year for disturbances in Gulf, so when forecasters predicted Delta, Pointe Coupee already had the necessary steps in place.
Sandbag locations are ready to go and relief shelters are on standby.
“The biggest thing is that we want to do is urge our citizens to be prepared.”
But the most important detail is getting ready for those strong wind gusts. Dead tree limbs hovering people’s homes are coming down. The mayor of new roads, says the goal is to not only keep them from crashing into the roof, but to keep the power running as long as possible. Any limbs hanging over electrical wiring have been taken down. And debris is being cleared out of the roads.
“In the last 18 months I think we’ve conservatively cut about 100 trees,” Cornell Dukes says.
New Roads is also taking extra precaution with the important city records. The mayor says a safe room was just built to hold information and files through the storm. But as with any weather event, the public’s safety is the parish’s top priority.
“It’s been a lot of storms out there brewing. We’ve been fortunate so far,” Thibut says. “But Mother Nature she can’t be predicted , so we just deal with what we have.”