St. Tammany Parish President Mike Cooper is not waiting for the first cone-of-uncertainty graphic to start flashing on TV. He pulled state and local emergency-preparedness officials together on Thursday to brief Northshore residents on how to get their homes and families ready as the Atlantic hurricane season approaches.
Officials walked residents through what to have on hand, how to stay in touch when the weather turns ugly and where to go if an evacuation is called.
What Officials Told Residents
Cooper and local emergency managers laid out the basics of storm-season readiness, focusing on practical steps residents can control long before any system is in the Gulf, according to St. Tammany Parish on Facebook.
The briefing urged residents to gather essential supplies, make sure generators are in safe working order and lock in an evacuation plan well before conditions deteriorate. Officials stressed that these decisions get a lot harder once the wind starts picking up and roads begin to clog.
State Support and Local Coordination
To show how parish efforts tie into the larger safety net, Brig. Gen. Jason P. Mahfouz, director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness, joined local leaders to explain how state resources would be coordinated if a storm threatens the region, according to GOHSEP.
On the home front, day-to-day emergency operations in St. Tammany are run by Clint Ory, director of the parish Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness, per the St. Tammany Parish Government. Parish leaders said that tight coordination between Ory’s team and state partners is meant to speed up response times and push help to the hardest-hit neighborhoods more quickly when a storm does make landfall.
How to Get Alerts and Prepare
Officials reminded residents that staying in the loop is just as important as stocking up. They urged Northshore residents to enroll in the parish’s St. Tammany Alert Telecommunications (STAT) system, which delivers text, voice, email and push notifications when emergencies develop.
They also pointed residents to local resource pages that walk through hurricane prep in more detail. Those visitor and parish guides connect directly to the Everbridge STAT signup and outline sandbag locations, river gauges, shelter options and traffic information, according to Visit The Northshore.
Why Officials Are Raising the Alarm
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30, and forecasters are clear that things can escalate fast, according to the National Weather Service New Orleans/Baton Rouge. Parish leaders said that is exactly why they are pushing early preparation instead of waiting for a named system to pop up, arguing that a head start on planning can make a real difference in how residents ride out a storm.
Where to Watch for Updates
For the latest on emergency declarations, sandbag locations, shelter openings and other storm-related information, officials are directing residents to the parish’s social media channels and its emergency-preparedness page, or to call the Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness at 985-898-2359.
The early push, they said, is meant to give Northshore residents time to double-check supplies, review evacuation routes and decide in advance whether they would leave or shelter in place if a serious storm sets its sights on St. Tammany.
