Locals seem to take double hurricane threat in stride

BERWICK — They took a break Sunday afternoon to get a look at David Washington III’s phone.
David Griffin Sr., David Griffin Jr. and Melissa Brannon had been filling sandbags near where Washington had been loading more bright yellow bags into a small trailer. They were under the bridge near Berwick Town Hall.
Washington had the day off Sunday from his offshore job. But his company still sent the latest forecast tracks for Hurricane Marco and Tropical Storm Laura to his phone.
And the tracks seemed to have moved westward, making it a little less likely that the St. Mary Parish area would get the worst of two storms within two days.
But the National Weather Service warns that Hurricane Marco could bring up to 4 inches of rain and a 3-foot storm surge into Tuesday. Laura, a tropical storm as of Sunday evening, threatened to have stronger winds, up to 10 inches of rain and surge that could reach 10 feet at the coast Wednesday into Thursday. Laura could yet become a major hurricane, said meteorologist Roger Erickson at the National Weather Service in Lake Charles.
Despite the unprecedented threat of two hurricanes in two days, smiles were more apparent than urgency among the people filling sandbags at Berwick on Sunday.
“I guess it’s because it’s getting to be a routine,” Brannon said.
“Well,” Washington said, tying a sandbag closed. “You’ve got to protect your property.”
Across the Atchafalaya in Stephensville, there wasn’t much visible reaction to St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars' midday Sunday request for a voluntary evacuation of the lower parish.
An hour or so after the announcement, Charlotte Ratcliff, who chairs the St. Martin Parish Recreation District No. 1 board, was washing down the parking lot at the district’s new park near the Stephensville School. Ratcliff hadn’t heard the news about the voluntary evacuation, but she and her husband might not have evacuated their home anyway.
“We never did except one time,” Ratcliff said. “We ended up in Baton Rouge and got it worse than here.”
Down La. 70 at Doiron’s convenience store, there was no sign of people in a hurry to gas up and bug out.
But they were buying gasoline.
“They’re filling up gas cans for generators,” said Paula Wunstell from behind the counter. “Maybe if [Marco] wasn’t a Category 1 or a Category 2, more people would evacuate.”
Bags and sand were available at areas around the parish Saturday and Sunday, including:
—Under the bridge on David Drive in Morgan City.
—Near the water tower on Taft Street and across the tracks near the Volunteer Fire Department substation in Patterson.
—Under the bridge in Amelia.
—At the parish barn in Bayou Vista.
—At the Hanson barn in Franklin.
—The Glencoe fire station.
—The Four Corners fire station.