On Friday afternoon the sun came out. Utility linemen were making final repairs to restore power to the parish. The sun came out and this beautiful double rainbow graced the skies over Coushatta.
However there is still much to clean up and repair left in the wake of the storm that moved through the day before Memorial Day.
The Red River Parish Police Jury received a report on damage to the parish at its meeting Monday night. Also discussed were cleanup operations and suggested improvements before the next storm hits.
Shane Hubbard of the Office of Emergency Preparedness reported that they have reports of 24 houses damaged, and 5 of those were not insured. Hubbard also reported one ambulance damaged when a tree fell on it. And there was some damage to three public buildings.
It was reported that most of the water systems in the parish have back-up power available. However some portions of the Coushatta water system failed during the power blackout.
Hubbard told the police jury “The city does not have generators on their wells. There may be other water systems in the parish that do not have generators to keep their system working in the event of a failure.”
During the discussion, Jury Manager Jessie Davis said that the parish has some generators that put out high voltage. To make them useful, they will have to be equipped with converters to reduce the voltage output to 220 and 110. In addition, sites without backup power, such as water wells, will have to be prepared so that a generator could be plugged in and power the facility when needed.
One suggestion under consideration is mounting the generators and voltage converters on trailers so that they could be moved where needed. Hubbard added, “The parish and city are working to have generators ready to go and to have the facilities outfitted with plugs so the generators could be hooked up quickly.”
Juror John Moore said, “I want to note that the road crews did an excellent job in clearing debris from parish roads after the storm.” Moore added, “They got them open very quickly.”
