Naquin: Quiet season could still spark hurricanes

David Naquin, director of St. Mary Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security, spoke to Franklin Rotarians Tuesday of this year’s storm season and its local repercussions.
Naquin explained the 2018 storm season has been less eventful than previously expected by National Hurricane Center predictions. So much so that the NHC updated their predictions to better reflect the lesser numbers of expected storms.
He said the coast of Africa has been “spinning off” Saharan dust storms at such regular intervals that fewer tropical storms have had the chance to develop and strengthen. Thus, the gulf coast of the US has seen a quieter than usual hurricane season, so far.
He went on to emphasize that the quiet 2018 season notwithstanding, parish citizens should guard against too lax an attitude concerning storm preparedness, citing Hurricane Ivan as an example of a storm that made landfall in August, and was the first hurricane St. Mary Parish had seen that year.
According to Naquin, who was able to ride with the NHC on a “hurricane hunt” in March, said they are getting better and more accurate at predicting the paths and possible outcomes of future storms.
He said the NHC boasts an expected 50 percent improvement rate in their hurricane mapping and predictions by 2020.
He also expressed approval of the parish’s new levee system, in terms of protection from wind and storm surge; but also stated there was no way to see how well it would work, until the next time it is tested by a storm.
Naquin said people in motor homes and those who are south of the Intracoastal Waterway are a “flood threat,” adding that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has yet to recognize and certify the recent improvements made to the parish levee system. “It’s coming, though,” he said. “They are on their way, (to inspect the new levees.
“So, when the Weather Service calls us and says, ‘You’ve got a six-foot tidal surge coming,’ we know who is going to catch it at Burns Point and who is going to catch it at Cypermort Point. We know. We’ve done it too many times.
“The difference this time is that we’ve got an eight-foot levee down there that we’ve never had before.”
As far as evacuation efforts are concerned, Naqin said, “We’re going to know, days out, when it’s coming; and we’re going to get upstairs, and y’all are going to get to listen to the ‘community call,’ of the Hurricane Center’s forecast, which by the way, all of y’all can get the same thing on social media. They run the same thing on social media, and it’s the same thing that they give to us… so, you can get it firsthand.”
At that point, Naquin said the decision will be made whether or not to call for either a declaration of emergency, or evacuation. That decision, he said can be made by the parish president, any municipal mayor, or the Chitimacha police chief.
“At two days out,” Naquin continued, “we’re going to go to the hospitals, nursing homes and the jails, and say, ‘Ok, ya’ll have got to go.’”
He said transportation contingencies are in place for these designees, and have been written into their protocols for storm evacuation.
However, he said there are people with special needs, who “require other medical equipment than just an oxygen mask.
“We have places for all of them,” he said. “They get triaged over the phone and wind up at the PMAC (Pete Marovich Assembly Center) in Baton Rouge where they are triaged and then placed somewhere along with one caregiver. They are allowed one caregiver.”
The parish plans each year for 850 people without transportation, to need evacuation and shelter assistance. Naquin pointed to two “pick-up points” for such assistance: One in Morgan City, at Morgan City Junior High, 911 Marguerite St.; and the second in Franklin, at Franklin High School, 1401 Cynthia St.
From the pick-up points, Naquin said buses will take the evacuees to Rapides Parish Coliseum, in Alexandria, which has been designated the St. Mary Evacuation Center, available only to citizens of the parish.
He also noted a screening process in place, to be administered before initial evacuation from the two points in the parish.
“We have found, the hard way, during Katrina, there were child offenders that wound up in the same shelter as those people (children),” Naquin said. “So, when you are screened, it’s all by computer, and everything runs through the database, and it is a crime for an offender to enroll in a shelter without letting someone know (their offender status); because, they’ve got their own shelters.”
He closed by saying that if necessary US 90 would become a contra-flow route, and that evacuation updates will be findable at KQKI FM 95.3, KBZE FM 105.9, KMRC AM 1430, KXKC FM 99.1, KTDY FM 99.9, KWBJ-TV 39 and the parish emergency websites: www.stmaryohsep.org, #sohsep on Twitter, and the St. Mary Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness Facebook page.
Naquin closed by saying south Louisiana is in “better shape for a hurricane than it’s ever been.” But, he also reminded citizens that time is not always a luxury, and not to rely on a standard 5-day notification scenario, because sometimes it may just be two days.