Rain brings power outages, road closures, potential house flooding
Laura Bond, Reporter
10-30-2009
Lincoln Parish Police Jury President Skip Russell has declared a state of emergency through Saturday because of the potential for a flooding hazard.
This action gives parish leaders the power to make decisions about road closures and the opportunity to file with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to recover funds spent on recovery efforts, Russell said.
Gov. Bobby Jindal has also issued a statewide emergency declaration to assist in the deployment and staging of state assets to support parishes affected by severe weather.
Homeland security director Jerry Lewis said some parts of Lincoln Parish could be hit with six inches of rain, causing house flooding, power outages and road closures.
“If you don’t have to travel, I advise to you to stay home,” Lewis said. “The rain is going to come from the west and stall in-between Shreveport and Monroe.”
Lewis said the rain would likely not lessen until 1-2 a.m. Saturday.
Russell said the storm has not appeared to be as severe as was first predicted.
“We dodged a big bullet that we have not had the wind damage or hail that Shreveport did,” Russell said. “We did not get the high winds we expected. This morning, a few parish roads are closed.”
Lewis said because the ground is so saturated, some trees could fall over and hit power lines, which could cause power outages.
City public utilities manager Darrell Caraway said the city has crews designated on stand-by to respond to power outages and street flooding issues.
“If the weather’s bad, stay home,” Caraway said. “If we have a road flooded or there are trees down across the road, the less the traffic we have to deal with the quicker we can do our jobs.”
Lewis said some roads may remain closed after the storm because of water damage.
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Need sandbags?
City residents — Each resident can pick up a maximum of 25 bags. For more information, call the Public Works Complex at 242-7700. Parish residents — Between 500 and 1,000 sandbags are available at the parish Public Works Complex on Arkansas Plant Road off of La. 33. Residents are asked to do the bagging themselves. Assistance is available for elderly and special needs residents. For more information, call the Police Jury at 513-6200.
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