by Malcolm Butler
Communication. Cooperation. Community.
Those were three of the overreaching themes that were repeated during Monday morning’s Lincoln Parish “After Action Review” meeting that included representatives from police, fire/ambulance, municipalities, public works, police jury, city councils and the state DOTD.
The 90-minute review led by Lincoln Parish Director of Homeland Security and Preparedness Kip Franklin served a purpose of talking about what was done right and what could be done differently during future winter storms.
And while all parties involved agreed that there are plenty of areas for improvement in the future, they also agreed that the joint effort by local and state agencies, local businesses, utility workers, and even individuals was heartwarming to see during the challenging week.
“I appreciate what everyone did during this storm,” said Franklin. “Lincoln Parish was blessed considering some of our neighboring parishes. This is a no fault discussion. We aren’t placing blame on anyone. Every incident has its challenges, I think overall, everyone worked together to accomplish what needed to be done.
“I want to thank all the parish first response agencies, the police jury, the municipalities, the parish DOTD, state police, national guard, and parish citizens who stepped up to help out during this storm.”
Topics ranged from transportation to communication to logistics to public safety and others during the meeting held the Lincoln Parish Public Safety Complex.
“We want to develop an improvement plan based on what we hear today,” said Franklin.
Transportation was one of the main focuses.
Bridget Skinner with the DOTD who oversees Lincoln Parish said that it took help from various entities to tackle the clearing of the roads in District 4 and other areas.
“We responded the best we could,” said Skinner. “The National Guard was a big help. I don’t know that we could have (cleared I-20) without the wreckers pulling trucks and getting them going. The (Lincoln Parish) Police Jury was an immense help in clearing state routes off the interstate.
“We could not handle state routes while we were fighting the interstate. It would have been Tuesday or Wednesday before we could have gotten to state routes. We we appreciate the parish police jury for picking up the slack, especially on Highway 167, Highway 33 and Highway 80.”
Police Jury spokesman Kevin Klepzig talked about the LPPJ gameplan when it came to helping clear roads.
“We focused on roads with the higher traffic count,” said Klepzig. “But we focused on other facts such as bus traffic for the school board. We had two private contractors engaged with three graders that helped out. Those contractors worked Hwy 80 and 167, and our crews helped with 167 and then went from there.”
LPPJ President Glenn Scriber boasted about the communication it took throughout the week-long event.
“Organization is everything,” said Scriber. “I was so pleased with our staff and our jury working with the parish. We had a plan every single day on where to go. Compliments to the (DOTD). It was basically a verbal agreement that they gave us the okay to help. I was really pleased with the organization and everyone working together. It was a team effort.”
John Freeman with the City of Ruston said their focus was trying to keep people off the roads in order to help limit unnecessary issues.
“The utility outages were due to traffic accidents with people who really had no business being on the roads,” said Freeman. “That was early in the storm. This was more of a transportation event for us and not a utility event that we were preparing for. I think everyone was a quick study and redirected their resources to adapt what we were experiencing.”
Grambling Mayor Alvin Bradley also boasted about the support his community received.
“Hats off to the police jury and the DOTD for stepping up,” said Bradley. “We had some state roads that I informed our representative Greg Williams needed work. They sent the graders out and hit 150 and 149. We were very appreciative of that. We got the word out and our citizens stayed in the majority of time. We dodged a bullet. Hats off to everyone who played a part.”
Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Office Deputy Sheriff Landon Hunt said their office had 5,600 calls come in to the administrative line during the five days along with 515 “911” calls. There were 417 incidents and 135 transports of essential personnel.
“I just want to brag on all of our deputies, city police, city fire … when something like this happens, it makes you appreciate how important all of these men and women are,” said Hunt. “I think the main difference I saw between this storm and the last one was communication between all of the agencies. We saw a huge difference in response time.”
Ruston Police Chief Eric Watson spoke to his departments involvement.
“We had lots of call and most of ours were reactive,” said Watson. “Our biggest problem were the 18 wheelers. We spent hours and hours directing traffic because of 18 wheelers that got off the interstate and didn’t have anywhere to go. I can’t tell you how many man hours we spent just dealing with tractor trailers.
“Having the National Guard available to clear the interstate and get those trucks moving was so huge. Only one wrecker service couldn’t respond to all of them. The National Guard did a fantastic job.”
Watson also spoke to the teamwork with the LPSO.
“We were in constant contact asking if they needed anything or them asking if we needed anything,” said Watson. “It went really well. And of course the city public works communicating with us everyday made a big difference.”
The Ruston Police Department had over 300 calls during the storm, an “uptick” from its norm.
Ruston Fire Chief Joe Dan Martin spoke to operations on their end.
“I thought the dispatch on both ends went great,” said Martin. “We didn’t have any problems with that. I think this is one of the smoothest disasters that we have ever had. When I first started we were reactive, and now we have become much more proactive.”
RFD spokesman David Wells said they fielded 83 calls, a 25 percent increase in emergency calls compared to the daily average, and were involved in transporting patients for dialysis treatments. He said one of the positives was the lack of power outages which drastically lowered the probability of house fires.
Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker put a bow on the overall tone of the meeting, talking about community.
“I have never seen this parish work together like it did this event,” said Walker. “I really appreciate what everyone did working together. We learn from each one of these events and we continue to learn how to take care of things better.”
