Mandatory evacuation called for south of the Intracoastal Thursday

A mandatory evacuation, effective noon Friday for areas south of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in St. Mary Parish, including Cypremort and Burns points, was announced by Parish President David Hanagriff after Wednesday afternoon’s conference call with the National Weather Service for an update on Hurricane Delta.
Hanagriff said he was calling the mandatory evacuation out of caution due to projected storm surge.
While not a lot has changed in the forecast from this morning, with Delta now in the Gulf of Mexico and headed for landfall Friday afternoon around the Cameron and Vermilion Parish lines, it appears the affects in St. Mary will be on the western end, parish Office of Emergency Preparedness Director David Naquin said.
Roger Erickson of the National Weather Service said that it appears the flood protection structures in eastern St. Mary Parish should do well with the storm surge.
“But the levee that’s further up the road towards the Franklin area may not be able to stop this water, so that’s a big question mark for Franklin,” Erickson said during the update.
He also said that water is expected along and near U.S. 90 in areas from New Iberia and Franklin.
St. Mary Levee District Operations Manager Mike Brocato Jr. said from the models they have utilized, he is anticipating water levels to be at least as high as Hurricane Laura. The levee district is currently completing projects in western St. Mary Parish to shore up areas to provide protection.
One positive is the Wednesday afternoon forecast did not include a potential of Category 3 at landfall, only a Category 2.
Also, the storm is fast moving as it was headed Northwest at 17 mph as of 4 p.m. where it is slowly gaining strength.
“Because the system’s moving so fast, I don’t think we’re going to see hurricane force winds for more than three or four hours, I would imagine, in at a given time for any location, and tropical storm force winds I don’t think will last more than 12 hours at the very most,” Erickson said.
At landfall, hurricane force winds are expected to be from 25-35 miles from the circulation’s center, while tropical storm force winds are anticipated from 100 to 140 miles per hour by landfall from the circulation’s center.
The parish is projected to receive 80-90 mph winds with sustained gusts of 45-50 mph and 6-8 inches of rain.
“This is still not good, but it’s a lot better than it could have been at least for today,” Naquin said.
Tropical force winds are expected to begin by mid-morning Friday and then increase until about sunset when hurricane force winds will begin. The storm is expected to be gone from the area by Saturday.
Erickson said until the storm’s turn to the right is expected to occur during the day Thursday and the “big swing to the right” will occur later Thursday.
Naquin noted while earlier in the forecast the track was projected to make that right turn and pass between New Iberia and Jeanerette after making landfall, now it is projected to be west of Lafayette and doesn’t make the right turn until it nearly reaches Opelousas.
“There’s a lot that’s changing, and it’s changing every day,” he said.
Also Wednesday:
—Legacy Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Franklin is evacuating Thursday morning, while Legacy’s Morgan City facility is holding off at least for now because the area isn’t expected to be threatened, Naquin said.
—St. Mary Parish Sheriff Blaise Smith said Sheriff’s Department prisoners will be evacuated by Thursday morning.