By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Although national forecasters are expecting to see a near normal year for hurricane season, which started Friday, local officials in the River Parishes say residents should still think about what to do if a storm heads this way.

Although St. John the Baptist, St. James and St. Charles Parishes have mostly been spared severe damage over the past several storm seasons, emergency preparedness directors say that shouldn’t be a reason for residents to be lax in preparation.

“There is no real reason to wait until the last minute,” said St. John Emergency Preparedness Director Jobe’ Boucvalt. “The parish has always taken a proactive approach to preparations our residents and businesses should do the same. Go over a checklist, use the Internet for information and know the routes to get out of town.”

Boucvalt said when a storm gets closer to the region, residents should consider getting out of town before the state’s contraflow program turns the interstate system into one-way highways out of town.

“Once you get caught up in it, you are stuck,” he said. “Each lane goes in a specific direction, so learn the routes before you need them.”

Boucvalt said the parish offers a hurricane preparedness guide that can be picked up at the parish offices or at any library in the region.

In St. James Parish, Emergency Preparedness Director Eric Deroche said parish officials recently completed a tabletop exercise reviewing the parish’s emergency plan with department heads. He said the parish’s emergency operations center met this past week with Entergy, the St. James Sheriff’s Office, the parish fire departments, representatives from the state, as well as the parish’s two municipalities to review the season’s forecast and give any new updates on the parish’s plan.

“We have all learned lessons during Katrina in 2005, and we reviewed those lessons in 2008 for Gustav and Ike,” Deroche said. “We have been lucky, but the parish is prepared.”

Deroche encouraged residents to stay connected with various parish communication outlets, including the parish website and its Facebook page. He also said residents should consider registering with the parish’s text based alert system, which sends updates to cell phones.

“We have about 947 residents in all signed up right now,” Deroche said. “We will be using Facebook in the coming weeks to post reminders for residents about their plans for the season.”

Boucvalt said St. John uses a similar communication system known as FirstCall, which sends alerts to residents’ home phones, cell phones and email addresses. He also said the parish’s website and cable access channel will also feature information throughout the storm season.

In St. Charles, the parish offices offer an emergency alert notification system for residents and businesses that will be used for all forms of emergency. More information can be found on the parish’s emergency preparedness page on its website.

In addition to inter-office preparations, St. John and St. Charles parishes have both steadily working on an assortment of drainage improvement projects to combat heavy flooding from severe rain.

St. John officials recently finished work on drainage work in the Homewood region of Reserve, including a new pump station and flap gates to prevent drainage backups. The parish also recently completed a similar project near Persimmon Street in LaPlace.

The most major improvement in St. Charles is completion of the Cross Bayou Pump station in the St. Rose area, which is designed to pump water over the recently completed East Bank Hurricane Protection levee keeping water off Airline Drive, a major evacuation route. The parish also installed automated bar screen cleaners to help keep pump intakes free of debris.