Disaster weary Calcasieu looks at wys to protect the parish from future weather woes
Feb. 19—LAKE CHARLES — New misery visited upon
The goal: Better prepare
Parish leaders say they might be able to use federal funding targeted for repairing local infrastructure after Hurricanes Laura and Delta in 2020 to better protect the area against other dangers as well, such as the sudden and serious winter storms experienced here. Specifics are few but that's a guiding principle moving forward, to bear winter weather in mind alongside other possible disasters.
"We're still in the middle of this," Beam said late last week. Water-pressure problems and losses of power, he suggested, may be more "long lasting" than some believe. He said the parish was moving ahead as if the power problems would be resolved by Monday, but there's no guarantee they will be.
Around
The cold spell, she said, is worse than the hurricanes in some ways.
She said the city of
Many of the nearly homeless are without utilities and have been even before the storm, such as one man who lives in a camper near the convent. The nuns check on him routinely to make sure he's OK.
"It's discouraging," she said. "For those who don't have means, it's a huge problem" to have broken pipes and related damages on top of hurricane-related damage.
"People are strong here, though," she said. "You've got to be strong to live here."
At
Operating downtown out of a storefront on
She and volunteer
Beam and
"It crippled things to not have water pressure," Galan said. In the past week, the parish government had pipe breaks at two public works buildings, the mosquito control site and at animal services. A pipe broke at
"We are used to preparing for hurricanes, floods and chemical leaks," Beam said. "Severe winter storms are different."
Beam said losses in water pressure in
"Controlled outages are a last resort in order to prevent a larger system outage and are only directed in rarest circumstances," Morris said. MISO directs each utility to shed a specific amount of load.
Beam said funding for "hardening" the parish's infrastructure might come through either of two federal programs: Community Development Block Grants or through Hazard Mitigation Grants. Typically,
Galan and Beam said building or hardening infrastructure can address several threats simultaneously without requiring additional money. Some steps might protect parish infrastructure during hurricanes as well as winter storms.
Galan and Beam both said what lessons
Beam said the parish is hopeful that the weekend will give the water systems time and opportunity to gain pressure. That, he said, would be a blessing to a parish and region where so much has gone wrong in the past year.
COVID-19, two major hurricanes and now devastating winter storm "feels a bit like piling on to a segment of the population that has had more than its share of disaster," Beam said.
"We need a chance to get off the mat."
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