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Preparedness is essential during hurricane season, and while Terrebonne emergency preparedness officials are urging residents to have a game plan, the parish is also preparing for construction on a new Emergency Operations Center.
The parish’s current operations center on Capital Boulevard does not have enough room to house the more than 25 different agencies necessary to protect the parish during a storm.
Earl Eues, director of Terrebonne’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said moving their new location to higher grounds of the parish on La. Highway 24 north of U.S. Highway 90 will improve overall protection during hurricanes.
Dubbed as the North Terrebonne Government Campus, the area will also be home to the new animal shelter and the juvenile justice center, as well as volunteer fire departments, medical staff, the National Guard, Wildlife and Fisheries and the Levee District during times of disaster.
“We don’t have a building that can withstand a Category 5 hurricane,” Eues said of the need for the new building. “The building we’re in right now is probably limited to a Category 1 or Category 2 storm.”
In the event of a storm stronger than a Category 2, representatives from each parish department have to move operations to the South Central Planning and Development Commission offices in Gray. With a first responder’s safe room equipped with top of the line technology, all of these agencies will be able to collaborate during times of distress.
“This new facility allows us to have our own building where we won’t have to move out in case of a major storm or hurricane,” Eues said.
Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet said the building is “an absolute must,” because of the difficulties that arise when moving offices.
“That’s hard to do right in the middle of an event when hurricanes can increase in intensity,” he said. “If you’re at the current Emergency Operations Center and don’t have communications, you’re actually in the dark completely because you can’t get reports from any of the people.”
Architects Design Group of Florida, which specializes in safety facilities, as well as Architect Houston Lirette of Houma designed the new 10,283-square-foot Emergency Operations Center.
“Any outside agency we need to help us facilitate the storm, they have a seat in our EOC now and then,” Eues said. “What we’ve learned in the past is that it takes a lot more agencies to help the parish recover from a storm than to prepare for a storm, and we need all these agencies in one facility.”
With a total cost of $3.6 million, the design of the building will meet the parish’s space and survivability needs at least through the year 2035. Funding for the project comes from capital outlay projects and parish funds, Eues said.
Claudet credits state Sen. Bret Allain, R-Jeanerette, for providing capital outlay money in the Priority One fund to make it possible for the parish to bid on this project.
Aside from the new EOC, Eues said the parish is ready for the season. Hurricane projections this year are expected to be anywhere from an “average to a below average” season, but Eues cautions it only takes one storm to have a bad season.
“(Hurricanes) Audrey, Andrew, Betsy and Camille were ABC storms later in the season because those were also El Nino years where the activity was supposed to be relaxed,” he added.
Claudet said residents will benefit this storm season from increased capacity on pump stations throughout the parish and a clearer unified command for decision making where he, Eues, Sheriff Jerry Larpenter and Houma Police Chief Todd Duplantis will decide how to better protect residents.
“The input in making a decision is much more substantial than it’s ever been,” Claudet said.
Residents are recommended to visit www.getagamplan.org to develop a plan and follow the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness on Twitter and Facebook. There is also an emergency notification system, which allows residents to receive updates to their home or cell phone, and a toll free community hotline that can be dialed for updates at 888-356-4737 during an emergency.
“In the event that we have something pop up in the Gulf of Mexico, residents need to be ready to evacuate,” Eues warned. “We can get storms that pop up in the Gulf of Mexico at any time that give us a short amount of time to prepare and evacuate. Residents should be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice whenever it is needed.”
