Ken Grissom

t_news@bellsouth.net

St. Martinville – Here comes another hurricane season but St. Martin Parish is better prepared for it than in the past.

Thanks to a new service called emergency notification, people all over the parish will soon be able to sign up for phone calls, e-mails and text messages with emergency information.

And at city halls, police departments and wherever else critical public safety personnel hunker down during the storm, they’ll have instantaneous emergency power to keep the radios and telephones operating.

Lt. Col. Terry Guidry, assistant director of Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, told the Parish Council last week that the instant notification service should be in place by June 1, official start of hurricane season. Citizens will be able to sign up via the Web site, www.stmartinohsep.org, or through the company, FirstCall Interactive Network, Inc.

The service, provided by a grant, will enable emergency preparedness officials to instantly send alerts to a mass audience or specific groups of people, as the situation warrants.

A mix of grant money and local dollars has provided over a dozen emergency generators to keep things running at command centers, water plants and other critical infrastructure.

Parish President Guy Cormier said the Parish Government Building, the Fire Training Center at Ruth, the Stephensville Fire Station in lower St. Martin, and Bayou Estates subdivision in Stephensville will all have emergency generators in place by the start of hurricane season. The parish will also have three mobile generators to deploy elsewhere.

Also covered with in-place generators are St. Martinville City Hall and Police Department, Breaux Bridge City Hall, PD and water plant, and municipal offices in Henderson and Parks.

A free half-day seminar on emergency preparedness will be held at the Cade Community Center, 9 a.m. to noon Thursday, May 27. Organizers ask that you RSVP Parish Government at 394-2200.