The state is ramping down its emergency response activities as most of Louisiana appears to have dodged a bullet from once Hurricane Barry. There were concerns that the levees in New Orleans would have difficulty handling the storm, but Governor John Bel Edwards says the upgraded levee system held up.
“The risk reduction system was completely button up and closed off, and from here, it appears to have performed extremely well.”
There were concerns of overtopping due to the Mississippi River being at around 16 feet due to historic rainfall in the Midwest.
Edwards thanked the emergency personnel who rose to the occasion during the storm. He says operations took place in a number of locations.
“Altogether with search and rescue across Louisiana, 93 individuals were saved from 11 parishes.”
48 of those came from one facility that was evacuated early Sunday morning in Iberia Parish.
The system knocked out power all along the coast as the hurricane and tropical storm force winds knocked down power lines. Edwards says the final numbers were substantial.
“Since the storm started they have restored power to over 188,000 customers, and many of those customers were restored more than once.”
The majority of those outages occurred in coastal parishes.
