Weather Service local municipalities and state officials we are closely monitoring the system which is expected to make landfall on the Louisiana coast the main threats from this tropical system include heavy rainfalls strong winds that could cause damage and the possibility of isolated tornadoes it's crucial that all of us take this storm very seriously and begin our preparations immediately I urge every resident to take the following steps prepare a disaster Supply kit as we always say make sure you have enough food water and essential supplies to last at least 72 hours also make a plan with your household when this storm starts affecting our area on Wednesday I want everyone in East Baton rou Parish to have a plan to be in IDE a sturdy structure for the duration of the storm you should also know where to go if conditions worsen and ensure all family members including pets are accounted for in your plans finally please use the buddy system check on your neighbors especially the elderly or those who may need additional assistance to ensure they are also prepared our city Parish officials and First Responders are already taking action we are clearing storm drains and basins to reduce the risk of flooding and replenishing our stock of sand and sand bags to help residents protect their homes sand and sandbags are available at eight Breck park locations across the parish including the fairgrounds on Airline Highway Memorial Stadium heartley Bay Park at gardier alson Park Cadillac street park Doyle's Bayou Park Flanery Road Park and love it Road Park please remember to bring your own shovels to fill sandbags at these locations as we continue our preparations it's important that all of us stay informed please monitor local news channels listen to Weather Radio and follow Red Stick ready on social media for Real Time updates and preparedness tips we are baton rou strong and by working together we can ensure that our community is Red Stick ready and resilient in the face of this storm please stay safe take necessary precautions and look out for one another now I'm going to ask clay Reeves our director of the mayor's office of Homeland Security and emergency preparedness to give a follow-up update clay thank you mayor yes I just uh want everyone out there watch your media watch your news um make informed decisions just like the mayor said prepare that's what we're doing today at the uh City Parish level we have all our First Responders here they're going to tell you a little bit what actions they're going through um we're prepared we're here to protect the health safety and Welfare of all of our citizens uh we have some of the best First Responders in the world they we've done this before uh this is really a a tune-up run uh we're going to have a a very uh long season so go ahead and prepare today don't wait till tomorrow so I'm going to let Reginal Brumfield our our director part of Maintenance tell you a little bit about what we actually do preparing uh for storms all right good morning everyone Regal brunfield with the Department of Maintenance we are fully coordinated with uh Mr Reeves and M uh our emergency procedure have begun we've been delivering if that occurs and we can uh dispatch and clear that right away uh we're prepared for the initial start the recovery and the response phase of this emergency and uh any needs you have please contact mup and we're fully coordinated ated and ready to go thank you thank you um Fred raford I'm the transportation and drainage director for East B Parish um the good thing I can tell you is that we've done a lot of canal clearing throughout the parish which is certainly a real benefit to helping water get out of East Baton rge Parish um I think that is a very big plus I rode most of the day yesterday looking at the channels and making sure there wasn't a real problem just because you never know what this storm event going to do but I believe that we we're in good basis from that and we've been continue and will continue to clean catch basins and also drainage Bel uh pipe out where we can help facilitate moving water I was out uh yesterday afternoon also looking at the Lakes the university Lakes nobody really knows that but it does have a real impact on drainage and we have a new wear system that uh has been put in which will be able to help facilitate getting water out of the Lakes which gets more water running through the the subdivisions that tie into that lake so we'll be addressing that also today I chatted with Mr Adam Smith who is the director of Environmental Services um he will handle the actual lowering of the lake of Capitol Lake Park I mean that is a critical uh infrastructure particularly dealing with the I10 uh curve there it goes always goes underwater and so we trying to make sure we lower as much as 2 and 1/2 ft that we will probably be dropping and starting today but from that you know we're going to be prepared I have my traffic signal people ready we're putting out barricades today uh we we're prein pre-installing some of these locations uh cuz we want to make sure that that if the police department has an opportunity and they see Water Rising they can have the barricades put out there they know where these locations are so we can help try to address people getting into areas that they probably shouldn't be driving so and we also have three crews ready for traffic signal maintenance uh we also understand that it probably going to be a little more wind than we anticipated it uh we certainly can't be out there to it safe to be able to do the work but we do have three crews that will be responsive uh to those issues that the public would ask us to look at from that I'll I'll pass it on to Chief good morning Michael Kimble the fire chief for the B fire department uh the B fire department is very well prepared and equipped along with all the fire protection districts of this Parish we met uh through some phone conversations this morning we'll have our boat teams in place staffed in case of flooding Waters our structural collapse teams in case of any type of tree falls on the structure any wind damage we have the the experts on the ground ready to respond to any given emergency across this Parish at any given time so we're very fortunate of the Staffing that we have uh we will continue to provide that service throughout this as we do every day but we're just going to beep up our staff and have more resources available throughout the next 96 hours or so for this event thank you Mike denola with the Department of Emergency Medical Services what we're doing right now is we're going over all of our equipment and all of our extra equipment we're uh double beefing up some of our units we'll be adding more units to the road as time approaches uh will also be beefing up staffs I'd like to remind everybody in the public that to get your medications filled right now is a good time to get that taken care of and if you're using portable generators make sure you use those generators away from your house to keep carbon monoxide from coming into your house it's one of the biggest safety calls that we go on this time of the year everybody please be be safe thank you TJ Morris Chief of Police for the bat bridge Police Department first let me say thank you mayor for your leadership and bringing us all together um here's Monday we're not expec anything for a couple days but we're already communicating getting prepared uh for the police department side I want to remind everybody of the 311 number for non emergencies for flooding for trees down those kind of things we want to keep the 911 lines as free as possible so use 311 when relevant and not call 911 uh we are going to have extra staff out there U we're looking and monitoring the storm waiting to make decisions we already have place things in plan um things prepared and in place if we need to bring people in on their days off um shift detectives and other Administration officers to the streets to block roadways or work floods um just depend on what the weather does um just also reminders if we do have electric um electricity outages those um treat all those intersections as four-way stops if those lights go out and just if you don't need to be on the road stay off of the road watch out for that high water leave room for our emergency personnels to be out there and not having to come and rescue you when we have other um obligations to go do as well thank you all very much mayor thank you well as you can see uh we are being proactive uh we are prepared and uh we want our community to uh be safe uh during this potential uh weather event this is not the first time that we have uh been here at MP to discuss a major uh weather event and we have uh shown time and time again um that when we have fluid communication when we are prepared uh then we are certainly a resilient um moving forward through these uh issues so please uh keep the lines of communication open and uh we will continue to give you updates uh over the next two days any questions from anyone yes obviously people in thats are concerned about flooding can you elaborate a little bit about what exactly has been done with the tributaries and rivers and how much debris has been pulled out of there I know we've been covering it but can you maybe tell the people maybe Easter F that's a very good question and I'm going to let the expert Mr Fred raer tell you every detail thank you mayor well I think the tributaries project which is the uh funding that we have for 20 250 milon from the core we have completed the the actual work on B um Bayou Fountain that's from per PQ to all the way to bayu manat we've also figured one WS Creek which has just been recently completed from uh PQ Lane all the way to uh Bayou manack uh we finished up the project with Bayou manack which is the outfall for most of our major channels that run through our Parish um I I think when I look through that I don't remember the total but it was more tonnage than we would ever think when you stood up by all the material it would swallow you 10 times you know and so I would say that we've done a very good job from that from that particular project I will also mention that uh we've done clay cut by you under the American Rescue act funds that the mayor was able to help us to get which is very very important we've gotten that all the way from Amit River all the way up to uh florale all that's been cleared and snagged which is some of the areas in the around the airline highway had a lot of problems with residentials flooding uh I think this is going to be a big plus also from that perspective we also did elbow Bayou uh the section from I guess a bright side all the way back to the major outfall that goes to Bayou Fountain that's been cleared and snagged um in fact you'll find a little more out about all our presentations that we have at the next meeting meeting we have on Saturday to talk about those particular projects and what the real benefit is this is important just cleaning your out the drains from the pipe to to actually to the outfall those things have happened working with Mr brunfield and his group we also had contract people doing some work we have spent a lot of time and effort um are we where we need to be no not yet but we're making a lot of progress I think uh most people from the rain event that we've seen including the one we just had we didn't have a whole lot of complaints about drainage now there may have been some Street flooding Street flooding is reality it does happen it's part of the drainage system it will go into those drain boxes if those drain boxes are not working that's when you would call 311 and then we would get people out there to get that address you mention I mean we did had between four and 5 in of rain last week in that and obviously people probably did call 311 have all those request been attended to I I wouldn't say all but I know that we looked at from a priority standpoint we look at those when they come in uh certainly that' be something Mr brunfield probably would look answer I'm in fact I'm going to let Mr brunfield answer that good morning thank you uh what we do is we prioritize all of our services on uh safety liability uh and we also uh have a lot of requests from our council members that we insert because they represent the individuals in their District so from that standpoint all of the requests get in in inspected uh every week we inspect all the new requests that came in and then based on those inspections and council members requests we prioritize our schedules all right I one I want to just mention two other channels which in my opinion is very very important the clearing and snagging of comet River uh that which goes all the way up to Highway 64 and comes out right there at where ties in the AIT right there by um the interstate we're also just as important we've done working with uh evill I mean Livingston Parish we've been working clearing and snagging most of the uh amitt River in fact we almost finished we on the section from FL from Florida Boulevard going south we got about maybe a half a mile left to be cleared and snag um we'll see what happens after the rain event what comes to that location but I think there there's a lot of plus from a drainage aspect that when you look at your outfalls that's where it all got to go to and to me we have spent a lot of time and effort to to address that and I think it will be a benefit and that all depends on the type of rain event we may have and quite frankly uh depending on uh how much wind we get from uh a punch a train which will go back into Mara which may slow down some of our channels draining but it won't be because there's material sitting in because that's been addressed I I uh feel led to add something to what Reginal said Britney I I hope you heard what he said about the prioritization uh because usually there is always someone who will speak out and said I haven't heard from uh 311 but I think he was very clear in talking about the safety and all of the other uh criteria that go into uh responding and uh his weekly uh focus on those 311 calls any other questions any plans for potential Emergency Shelters to open or anything like that of them so you know we always um stand ready to open shelters as needed and um we will announce those openings in coordination uh with MP um our local and state partners and of course our stakeholders if um it is required that we uh do so um and so opening shelters is a um uh very uh significant um response that we have to do so we have to certainly be in coordination um and of course if there is widespread power outages and other conditions uh that require people to leave their homes that is one of the um motivators for uh setting up a uh a shelter but we will certainly uh be ready to do that as needed another thing people were worried about with hurricane ID was long gas lines and well I'm going to ask Chief you you can respond to that sure so your concern is the delay of getting fuel right that's what one of the mention men mentioned earlier was go ahead and get fuel now fuel up your vehicles now try to stay home try to stay off the roadways until this storm passes is what we want to encourage the citizens to do of this Parish well I want to thank you all for uh coming out expeditiously this morning and we look uh forward to keeping the lines of communication open with all of you all so you can help inform our public thank you so much thank you all thank you thank you oh yeah I've been thinking about that thank you