Gov. John Bel Edwards, state officials prepare for upcoming hurricane season

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - The past couple of years have been active hurricane seasons for Louisiana, and officials are expecting another one this year.

“There could still be 10 to 20 storms that end up forming, but as we’ve all unfortunately experienced over the last two years, it just takes one,” said Ben Schott from the National Weather Service. “It takes one to change our lives. It takes one to change everything that we know and create a lot of problems for us.”

The rapid intensity of many of these storms is why Gov. John Bel Edwards and his team are starting their drills early and encouraging folks to prepare early also.

“While we always intend to provide assistance as soon as possible, understand that we’re asking you to be prepared to go 72 hours before help arrives at your doorstep,” said Edwards.

The message includes making sure your insurance is up to date, having enough prescriptions and oxygen if you need it, and getting a generator and carbon monoxide detector.

“If you have these generators, or you’re thinking about getting them, now would be the time to have them inspected by a professional person,” said State Fire Marshal Butch Browning. “In addition to that, have the appropriate supplies. You know these generators require rest time over long periods of time. We had folks in south Louisiana who were out of power for weeks. Those generators require oil changes, they require servicing, now is the time to do that.”

If you need to evacuate, plan your route, and alternate routes ahead of time on 511.la.org.

“You never wait until the very last minute to evacuate,” said Dr. Shawn Wilson with DOTD. “The earlier you get out, the more easily you will be able to move and be patient in that process.”

Let your loved ones know your evacuation plans in case phone lines go down.

“Over the last few storms, we’ve had instances where family members couldn’t get in contact with someone, and so they would call us to have first responders who were extremely busy go to the homes of their relatives, and we find out that the relatives that they were worried about had evacuated,” added Edwards.

Louisiana is also a D-SNAP state, and you can now find out if you qualify for disaster food stamps early and pre-register here.

Click here if you need help putting together your hurricane plan.

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