This hurricane season will pose unique challenges in Lafourche. Here are some of them.

Lafourche Parish officials are preparing for another hurricane season and are urging residents to do the same.

That message came during a town hall meeting Wednesday evening at the Greater Lafourche Port Commission's offices in Galliano.

With the area still reeling from Hurricane Ida, the upcoming storm season, which runs June 1 through Nov. 30, will bring challenges like no other, Parish President Archie Chaisson said.

“A big focus will be on evacuations,” he said. “We already have people in these travel trailers and FEMA mobile homes. Typically, we evacuate around 1,200 people to Monroe if we have to or we shelter them here in the parish. We’re now looking at 3,000 based on the housing. So we’re making some plans.”

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Officials are also working to enhance power at Thibodaux High and Lafourche Central high schools in the event those buildings are used as shelters again, Chaisson said.

“One of the issues we had with Ida was that it came so quick and strengthened so fast that we couldn’t use the Raceland Rec Center,” he said. “We had to put evacuees in Central Lafourche and Thibodaux high school. Those buildings have small generators that run some lights and keep the sewerage running but nothing else. We’re working with the School Board to strengthen power at the high schools for air conditioning and those kinds of things.”

Residents now housed in state-issued travel trailers may receive phone calls in the coming days regarding the status of their recovery, Chaisson said.

“This is only for the state program, which we knew was going to be a temporary,” he said. “At some point, they were going to phase it out. It was supposed to be the bridge between the natural disaster and FEMA coming in to save the day, which never really happened. They’re now calling people to try and figure out what their situation is. There is a possibility that you may qualify for a FEMA unit and they will move you from a camper into a FEMA unit. There’s also the possibility that FEMA will take over the RV units.”

Chaisson told residents to not be concerned if they receive such a call.

“They’re still trying to figure out what their game plan is,” he said. “They’re by no means kicking anybody out. They’re just trying to figure out how many people are going to be in this thing and for how long. We know people are still torn up and they’re dealing with trying to find a place to live.”

There are currently 15,300 residents in Lafourche being temporarily sheltered in the state-run program. There have been 5,308 units leased and 5,731 deployed. There are 694 FEMA campers currently being occupied in the parish.

In addition to hurricane recovery and preparation, Chaisson gave residents updates on various parish projects in the works.

Karen Collins, CEO of Lady of the Sea Hospital in Galliano, also gave an update on the 25-bed facility’s rebuilding efforts after sustaining major damage during Ida on Aug. 29.

“We lost the roof and had water damage throughout the entire facility,” Collins said. “The hospital is totally gutted and we are in the process of obtaining a temporary hospital. We’re looking at two to three years before we can get a permanent hospital back into place. We’re not sure if that’s going to be a renovation or a replacement. It will be based on FEMA funding.”

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In the meantime, the hospital has had to improvise how it operates, Collins said. Hospital officials are working to get more services up and running in the coming weeks.

“We’re here, but we’re scattered all over the campus in modular buildings,” she said.

— Staff Writer Dan Copp can be reached at 448-7639 or at dan.copp@houmatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanVCopp.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: 2022 hurricane season in Lafourche: Challenges you need to know about