PLAQUEMINES PARISH, La. — With a collective sigh of relief, residents of south Plaquemines Parish, including the entire east bank, began heading home Tuesday afternoon after the mandatory evacuation for Marco and Laura was lifted.
Parish President Kirk Lepine said his emergency operations team determined that Laura no longer posed a serious threat to top parish levees or flood the lower parish’s only escape routes along Highways 23 on the West Bank south of Belle Chasse and Highway 39 on the East Bank from the St. Bernard Parish line.
“I was a little nervous a couple of days ago because we were talking about two storms, not just one,” Lepine said. “Marco has passed and Laura's still out there. But even though it’s generating and still getting stronger, it’s going more west, so we're lucky.”
The parish opened an evacuation shelter near the government complex in Belle Chasse for residents who had no other place to go. Transforming a multi-use pavilion into a shelter with adequate safety precautions for COVID-19 was a challenge, Lepine said.
About 50 people used the shelter, which included temperature checks at the door, mandatory mask-wearing and cots that were physically distanced.
“They had masks for you,” said Norman Ansardi of Empire. “So there was no concern really. Because they kept our temperature and kept a very good eye. Professionals.”
Ansardi evacuated from with her five dogs and one cat, getting a ride from a parish service agency. It was not an easy trip, but after seeing the devastation from Hurricane Katrina 15 years ago and how Hurricane Isaac submerged Braithwaite in 2012, she knew she couldn't take the risk.
“When they were there in 15 minutes I knew it was time to get me and my animals to safety,” Ansardi said.
After getting married on Aug. 4, waiting for two storms to pass inside a shelter is not how Samuel Riley Jr. expected to spend his honeymoon. But there he was, with his new bride and four of his in-laws.
“I’m ready to go home because that cot wasn't working for me,” Riley said. “I was sleeping on my side and my side hurts.”
Lepine said he was relieved that the evacuation turned out to be more of a dress rehearsal than an actual emergency, but he warned against complacency.
“There are probably many storms to come,” he said. “They anticipate an active hurricane season and we want our residents to be prepared.”
But if the evacuation for Marco and Laura is the only one of the season in Plaquemines, that's OK with Calvin Bartholomew.
“Thank God it passed,” Bartholomew said. “It's over with now and hope we don't get no more.”
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