People around Louisiana are surveying the aftermath of Hurricane Barry today. Many are feeling they dodged a bullet. Director of the St. Mary Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness David Naquin says the parish did not receive the copious amounts of rain forecasters expected, but it wasn’t until yesterday afternoon they say most of the rainfall.
“We had two bands that dumped seven inches. That’s the most rain we got in this entire event. Until then, we may have gotten three, three and a quarter, before that hit,” said Naquin.
Naquin says while many were spared from flooding, there were a few homes that were not so lucky.
“I would say probably less than fifteen in the Franklin and Centerville area and probably ten or so
The main issue facing homes and businesses is power outages. The most recent reports as of this writing indicate Entergy has 24,000 customers without power, down from 89,000. Cleco crews are entering their second day of restoration, with about 17,000 still without power. Cleco spokesperson Jennifer Cahill says crews are working feverishly to get power back to 100%.
“We have about 1,400 contractor crews in addition to our Cleco workers and staff who are out working to clear debris, repair damage to the system, and ultimately restore power to our customers,” said Cahill.
Cahill says Iberia Parish and St. Mary Parish were among the hardest hit with power outages.
“As we restore power to other areas of our service territory, we’re collapsing crews to our harder hit areas like Iberia and St. Mary Parishes,” said Cahill.
