Fay fizzles, has little effect on St. Tammany

Emergency preparedness officials with both St. Tammany Parish and local municipalities breathed a sigh of relief Monday morning as Tropical Storm Fay turned into a tropical depression and basically rained itself out, dumping most of its water outside the parish.

On Tuesday, they were on guard again, waiting to see what direction Hurricane Gustav will take.

Dexter Accardo, director of the parish’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Operations, spent a watchful weekend keeping tabs on the progress of Fay as it made its way across the Florida panhandle.

He and his crew were ready to take whatever action was necessary.

The parish opened up sandbag distribution points around the parish, but they were closed by Sunday.

“Everybody did their job,” Accardo said. “We have great workers.”

He said parish employees all knew what they had to do and were ready to spring into action.

According to Accardo, even employees who do not usually work during hurricanes or emergencies showed up during the weekend to help out any way they could.

“They made my job a whole lot easier,” Accardo said. “I was able to concentrate on the weather reports and the big picture while they took care of the details.”

Accardo said the only tense moments came Sunday afternoon, when he and St. Tammany Parish School Board officials had to decide whether or not to open parish public schools on Monday.

“If the storm got any worse, we didn’t want the kids going out on flooded roads,” Accardo said.

But Fay cooperated and late Sunday afternoon the National Weather Service downgraded the storm to a depression and said most of the rain would be to the east of the parish. Accardo said the news came within what he called the “decision arc,” a time period when parish officials had to make critical decisions about parish services.

Over in Slidell, things went just as smoothly, with very few incidents due to the wind and rain.

“We had no problems of note,” said Slidell city spokesman Paul Bartels. “Some downed tree branches, a little scattered debris and the like from the winds we got Saturday and early Sunday,” he said, adding the problems were no different from routine summer thunderstorms in the area.

Like Accardo, Bartels lauded emergency preparedness workers in the city and the parish for being on their toes, just in case.

“Since Katrina, no one in the Slidell area takes storms for granted,” Bartels said. “We were especially vigilant and well-prepared.”

Fay may have come and gone without a whimper, but just as the NWS cancelled storm warnings on the Gulf Coast, they warned about Tropical Storm Gustav, which had just formed south of the Dominican Republic and was headed north toward Florida.

Then the track changed on Tuesday, and the National Weather Center has models showing now Hurricane Gustav going west and entering the Gulf of Mexico sometime this weekend.

“We’re tracking it,” Accardo said Tuesday morning. “We are just waiting for more definitive information before we start pushing buttons to start emergency procedures.”

Even with models showing Gustav staying away from Southeast Louisiana, Accardo is not letting his guard down.

“The models are kind of crazy, but that is not a comfort zone,” Accardo said. “It’s not over until it’s over.”

He said his department will be the alert until Gustav has changed direction or gone away entirely.

“Unfortunately, it will give me another busy weekend,” Accardo said. “ But it’s that time of year again, and we have to be prepared.”