10-8-20
Louisiana is bracing for a possible hurricane for the sixth time of the unprecedented 2020 season. Forecasters say Hurricane Delta should make landfall in the state sometime Friday and could bring winds of over 100 miles per hour. People prepared Wednesday to once again flee the state’s barrier islands and moved boats to safe harbor while emergency officials considered ordering evacuations. Category 4 Hurricane Laura devastated Lake Charles in late August, and Louisiana saw heavy flooding from Tropical Storm Cristobal in June.
MANY PARISHES HAVE ORDERED EVACUATIONS. CAROLINE MARCELLO HAS THE DETAILS ABOUT VERMILLION PARISH.
VOICER X :25
JEFF DAVIS PARISH HAS ORDERED A MANDATORY EVACUATION AND HAS SET UP BUSES TO HELP PEOPLE WHO NEED TRANSPORTATION TO SHELTERS. MANDATORY EVACUATIONS HAVE ALSO BEEN ORDERED IN CALCASIEU PARISH, MOST OF CAMERON PARISH AND AREAS SOUTH OF THE INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY. VOLUNTARY EVACUATIONS HAVE BEEN ORDERED FOR ACADIA, LAFAYETTE, LOWER ST. MARTIN, IBERIA, ST. LANDRY AND BEAUREGARD PARISHES.
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT ACADIANA AND SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA ARE CLOSED TODAY AND TOMORROW BECAUSE OF HURRICANE DELTA. SOME CURFEWS HAVE ALREADY BEEN ANNOUNCED. LAFAYETTE MAYOR PRESIDENT JOSH GUILLORY SAYS THEY WILL HAVE A CURFEW THAT WILL LAST FROM NOON FRIDAY UNTIL SIX SATURDAY MORNING. NEW IBERIA’S CURFEW WILL TAKE PLACE FROM TEN P-M TO SIX A-M BOTH TONIGHT AND TOMORROW NIGHT. ST. LANDRY PARISH WILL IMPLEMENT A CURFEW THAT WILL BE IN EFFECT FROM NOON FRIDAY UNTIL EIGHT A-M SATURDAY.
CLECO IS MAKING PREPARATIONS FOR HURRICANE DELTA. THEY HAVE HIRED MORE THAN EIGHTEEN HUNDRED CONTRACT WORKERS TO AID THEIR CREWS TO RESTORE POWER ONCE THE HURRICANE HAS PASSED. CLECO JUST WRAPPED UP RESTORATION WORK FROM HURRICANE LAURA IN MID-SEPTEMBER. JAMES LASS, THE DIRECTOR OF DISTRIBUTION OPERATIONS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT FOR CLECO, SAYS DEALING WITH BACK-TO-BACK HURRICANES IS A BIG CHALLENGE BUT THEY ARE READY TO RESPOND.
LOUISIANA ADDED ONE THOUSAND FIFTY-THREE NEW CASES OF COVID-NINETEEN YESTERDAY. HOWEVER, THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SAYS FOUR HUNDRED SIX OF THEM ARE BACKLOG CASES FROM BEFORE SEPTEMBER SIXTEENTH. THERE ARE NINE MORE DEATHS IN THE STATE. AFTER TWO DAYS OF GOING UP, HOSPITALIZATIONS DECREASED YESTERDAY BY FIFTEEN. THE NUMBER OF PATIENTS ON VENTILATORS ROSE BY SEVEN.
FOR THE SECOND DAY IN A ROW, ACADIANA HAD FIFTY-SIX NEW CASES OF COVID-NINETEEN. LAFAYETTE PARISH HAD THE MOST WITH TWENTY-FOUR. THE OVERALL TOTAL HAS NOW SURPASSED TWENTY-SIX THOUSAND. SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA ADDED FIFTY-FOUR MORE CASES, MOVING THAT REGION’S TOTAL PAST TWELVE THOUSAND, TWO HUNDRED. THERE WERE NO NEW DEATHS IN ACADIANA. SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA ADDED ONE, WHICH WAS IN BEAUREGARD PARISH.
LAFAYETTE CITY PARISH ATTORNEY GREG LOGAN HAS FILED A PETITION ASKING A COURT TO REQUIRE AN ATTORNEY HIRED BY THE CITY COUNCIL SHOW BY WHAT AUTHORITY SHE WAS HIRED. LOGAN SAYS THE ATTORNEY HIRED BY THE COUNCIL, LEA ANNE BATSON OF BATON ROUGE, IS ACTING WITHOUT AUTHORITY AND USURPING THE AUTHORITY OF THE CITY PARISH ATTORNEY. THE COUNCIL HIRED BATSON ONE MONTH AGO TO REPRESENT THEM IN DISPUTES OVER THE BUDGET AND HOME RULE CHARTER. CITY COUNCIL CHAIR PAT LEWIS TOLD THE ADVOCATE HE WAS UNAWARE OF LOGAN’S PETITION AND DID NOT COMMENT.
STATE POLICE ANNOUNCED THAT TWO CHURCH POINT MEN WERE KILLED MONDAY MORNING IN A TWO VEHICLE ACCIDENT ON HIGHWAY 190 IN ST. LANDRY PARISH. THEY SAY SEVENTY-EIGHT-YEAR-OLD RAY DUPLECHAIN, WHO WAS DRIVING A PICKUP TRUCK, ATTEMPTED TO CROSS THE EASTBOUND LANES OF HIGHWAY ONE NINETY ONTO L-A SEVEN-FIFTY-TWO, AND WAS HIT BY ANOTHER PICKUP TRUCK, CAUSING BOTH VEHICLES TO GO OFF THE ROAD. DUPLECHAIN AND HIS PASSENGER, SIXTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD PAUL YOUNG, BOTH NOT WEARING SEATBELTS, WERE PRONOUNCED DEAD, WHILE THE DRIVER OF THE OTHER VEHICLE, WHO WAS WEARING HIS SEATBELT, WAS UNINJURED.
