The City has made remarkable progress in the past 72 hours. Most streets are now passable (albeit carefully). Major kudos to Fire, PD and Pub Works ... amazing folks. Opening our streets quickly allowed CLECO to work CovLA hard yesterday. Good Stuff.
ELECTRICITY is returning to some areas but there is still no accurate predictor for who will get energized when. Put another way, any guess as to when your power will return is unreliable. DAMAGED HOMES must be repaired, then inspected by the City before CLECO will connect.
The CITY COUNCIL is convening an emergency meeting this afternoon to waive all permit fees related to storm damage. Permits are available online at www.covla.com.
FUEL SHORTAGE continues across south Louisiana (not a Covington / St. Tammany isolated problem). Reported this morning that 8 refineries are still off-line including Exxon in Baton Rouge (5th largest in the nation).
The Louisiana National Guard will be distributing WATERS AND MRES tomorrow morning, 8:00am at the First Baptist Church 16333 LA-1085, Covington. Mom called it Six Flags Over Jesus. She loved that church.
DEBRIS: Residents who are putting debris on the curb should put on the back side of drainage ditches and away from catch basins and mailboxes, Separate green debris (trees, limbs, leaves) from white goods, electronics from construction / demolition materials.
• Do not bag green materials / leaves.
CLECO has a couple of dozen trucks in the area today. Their focus is on a transmission line near Menetre Drive that crosses the Tchefuncte River. Avoid 15th Avenue in this area.
Pub Works is rotating portable generators to keep smaller lift stations operating. Repair / replacement began this morning of one that was totally destroyed.
This Saturday Coastal will try to pick-up those customers missed yesterday. Worker shortage, blocked streets and low hanging wires were a real challenge.
This clean-up will cost millions of dollars … ostensibly reimbursed by FEMA. I'd be remiss if I did not mention the great job our Admin team is doing documenting ever work hour, every part, every vehicle used and every ton of debris hauled off. FEMA is a stickler for details when it comes to reimbursement.