Cleanup begins, then Barry strikes again

Barry kept its grip on St. Mary Sunday afternoon, a full day after making landfall near Intracoastal City. The storm, now a tropical depression, sent rain bands that triggered a flash flood warning here until 8:45 p.m.

Just before 4 p.m. the National Weather Service said up to 6 inches of rain had fallen in the previous few hours.

Franklin and Baldwin were especially hard hit, the National Weather Service said.

People across the area made use of an early afternoon pause in the wind and rain to begin clearing downed limbs and other debris.

But thousands of St. Mary residents remained without power Sunday night.

In Morgan City, power has been restored to about 50 percent of customers by Sunday night, Mayor Frank "Boo" Grizzaffi said.

"It was going well for a little while," Grizzaffi said about 7:30 p.m. "Now it's not going well."

Efforts to restore power in Elliott Subdivision, the area behind Morgan City Junior High between Sixth and Maple Streets, hit an unexpected snag. That same is true for the La. 70 feeder that serves the business corridor there.

Both those areas will remain without power Sunday night and, Grizzaffi said, should have power sometime Monday.

Monday's list of areas to work on includes Cypress Gardens, Marquis Manor and the area south of the railroad tracks.

"It's frustrating and people are mad, but our people have been doing a hell of a job," Grizzaffi said.

The city has employed contractors to help with restoration, but the bulk of the work is being done by city crews, the mayor said.

Cleco has restored power to about 4,000 of its St. Mary customers by Sunday, according to figures from poweroutages.us. But 12,403 remained without power at 8 p.m.

Patterson's city government posted a notice on its Facebook page about problems encountered by Cleco contractors: "Multiple problems w/circuits and feeders!"

Donald Young, who lives on La. 182 just west of the Patterson city limits, said he felt lucky.

"I've had [power] the whole time," Young said as he took a break from pulling down the plywood he'd nailed up to protect his front door. A pair of helpers was clearing debris from his yard.

His home experienced a few hours of outage, but power was quickly restored.

Young had much better luck with Barry than with Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Andrew all but destroyed his home.

And, lucky or not, he's done with sitting out hurricanes.

Next time, he said, "I'm sure I will be leaving."

Up the road in Patterson, a group that included Jon Campbell, Kirstine Campbell, Kurt Campbell and Annmarie Campbell was collecting downed limbs and
loading them in a trailer. They got help from a handy neighbor: Gerry Dumont, whose job is getting rid of stumps.

Like Young, the Campbells lost power for a few hours but felt fortunate to have electricity through most of the stormy weekend.

Eric Leleux's home in Berwick wasn't as lucky. He and his family and a neighbor were around the front porch Sunday afternoon before the rain hit. They'd been without power throughout the weekend.

Isolated reports of trees falling on mobile homes around the parish put a damper on the feeling of good fortune. But there have been no reports of injuries in St. Mary.

Officials called for voluntary evacuations of areas south of the Intracoastal Waterway and in lower St. Martin. They invoked curfews Saturday night.

One area was the target of a mandatory evacuation: La. 317 between the Intracoastal and Burns Point. An overtopped levee created a flood hazard.

The wind and rain gauges at Harry P. Williams Memorial Airport, which provide data for the National Weather Service, were an early Barry casualty Friday morning. But there were reports of 70 mph winds in St. Mary during the storm's peak impact Friday night and Saturday.

"This was supposed to be a rain event," Grizzaffi said. "And it ended up being a wind event."