St. Bernard Parish Government earlier today put their citizens on notice—Hurricane Ida is a big bad storm and its well on its way to bring havoc to the region.
Parish President Guy McGuinness says getting out is up to you:
“We’re not going to do a mandatory evacuation because that triggers a lot of resources that we don’t have.”
The low lying parish is activating its Emergency Operations Center and readying emergency service, McGuinness warned his residents:
“This is going to be a terrible storm, we need to hunker down by tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon and you need to be where you’re going to be for the duration of this storm,” McGuinness said. “That’s the best advice we can give to our citizens.”
To drive the point home that residents are mostly on their own, St. Bernard Parish Fire Chief Thomas Stone stated that during the height of the storm emergency services will stop once wind speeds are above 39-knots (45-mph).