EBR residents urged to prepare for Francine's arrival

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Officials in East Baton Rouge are working to prepare ahead of the storm. They’re doing what they can to prepare and they’re asking you to do the same.

Isah Davis spends Monday morning at one of eight sandbag sites in East Baton Rouge Parish before Francine makes landfall.

“I have about 15 sandbags, that should do it, yeah, because I don’t have a lot of flooding, but I just want to be prepared,” Davis said.

Even though he wishes the storm wouldn’t happen, Davis continues to check items off his storm preparation checklist.

“It’s not very pleasant! I don’t want a storm, but that’s life,” Davis said. “I’ve got my canned goods, you know, the essentials. I’ll probably fill up with gas tonight.”

Davis isn’t the only one preparing ahead of time.

Local authorities are working with EBR MOHSEP to prepare everything, including storm drains.

“Street flooding is a reality, it happens,” said Fred Raiford, EBR’s director of transportation and drainage. “What I can tell you is we’ve done a lot of channel cleaning throughout the parish, which is certainly a real benefit to helping get water out of East Baton Rouge.”

At the Baton Rouge Fire Department, they are also ensuring additional personnel and equipment are ready to deploy.

“We have boat crews on site, staffed, in case of flooding,” Chief Michael Kimble said. “Our structural collapse crews, if trees fall on a structure or wind damage. We have experts on the ground ready to respond to any emergency in this parish.”

The same goes for EMS and BRPD. They both have additional units on standby. Chief TJ Morse is also asking you to keep 9-1-1 lines open for emergencies only and to stay home if you can.

“If you don’t need to be on the road, stay off the road, be aware of high water and allow room for our emergency personnel to be on scene,” Morse said.

Also, make sure you have an emergency plan in place ahead of time.

“Go out there and prepare today, don’t wait until tomorrow,” said MOHSEP Director Clay Reeves.

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