, Reporter
11-01-2009
A state of emergency has ended for Lincoln Parish because Friday’s rainy weather no longer threatens to create a flooding hazard.Lincoln Parish Police Jury President Skip Russell had declared a state of emergency earlier this week for the parish because of the threat, but he announced that the emergency officially ended Saturday morning.
“The emergency declaration is no longer in effect. It ended because we did not have the types of claims that we thought we were going to have,” Russell said.
“We did not have the serious wind that our neighbors to the north and west got. We got 6 inches, not 10. All the roads that had closed because of high water are now open. We had no residual problems. We were also very lucky we didn’t get the type of wind and tornadoes that south Arkansas and Shreveport received.”
An emergency declaration gave parish officials the power to close certain roads and file with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to have money for any needed recovery efforts, Russell said.
Roads in Lincoln Parish that had previously been closed, such as Harper Bottom in the southern part of the parish, Rabb Road near Vienna, and LA 146 in the northeast part of the parish, are now open, Russell said.
Less than 10 homes in Lincoln Parish had flooding problems after Friday’s rains, said Homeland Security Director Jerry Lewis,
“Overall, we are still trying to get a count on it all right now. We know of five to 10 homes with some minor to moderate flood damage, but those were in mostly low-lying areas,” Lewis said.
As of Saturday, Homeland Security officials, along with officials from the Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Office, and Public Works, were still looking at bridges, roads, and culverts that might have sustained any damage, Lewis said.
Roads in Lincoln Parish that are close to Union Parish, such as Gill’s Ferry and Ken’s Landing, are closed until either Monday or Tuesday because of possible hazards, Lewis said.
Meanwhile, all 12,000 city utility customers in Ruston had power restored by 5 p.m. Friday after moisture from torrential rain knocked out the city’s main generator on north Trenton Street, said Darrell Caraway, city utilities director.
The entire city was without power for most of Friday morning. City work crews turned on the city’s backup generator on Frazier Road and restored power throughout 95 percent of the city early Friday afternoon, Caraway said.
“The city is still operating on the backup generator. The city will go back to the primary generator after we do some testing,” Caraway said.
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