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Before Hurricane Barry made landfall, Abbeville city workers had sandbags ready to hand out. When the storm arrived, most of the sandbags were given out.

Abbeville handed out nearly 3,000 sandbags for Barry

There are still two months until the peak of hurricane season and the season doesn’t officially end until Nov. 30.
Being prepared remains important.
People in Vermilion Parish were definitely prepared prior to Hurricane Barry hitting the area this past weekend. A big part of that preparation included gathering sandbags.
“We did give out more sandbags for this event than we have ever done since I have been here,” Abbeville Public Works Director Clay Menard said during Tuesday night’s Abbeville City Council meeting. “We gave out close to 3,000 sandbags ahead of the storm.”
The City of Kaplan also provided a large number of sandbags, and as Kaplan Mayor Mike Kloesel suggested, keeping the bags for next time is a good idea.
“PLEASE keep your sandbags and store them in a dry location for future use,” Kloesel said. “We gave out a record number of sandbags for the city so please store your sandbags in a dry location and they will remain in good shape. They will be ready for a storm for years to come. Please do not store them outside or along the side of a building. The bag will rot and you will not be able to use them again. Again, always store them in a dry location.”
In Abbeville, city workers did their part to make sure citizens had sandbags.
“Every available city worker was bagging,” Menard said.
Abbeville Mayor Mark Piazza commended the workers’ effort, adding that the city will be looking into funds, including Louisiana Government Assistant Program grant that the city receives from the state, to purchase some equipment that could help with the bagging process.
“We probably need to look at getting a sandbagger or two,” Abbeville Mayor Mark Piazza said. “Those guys worked for two straight days. We had crews helping. We finally got to a point that we couldn’t keep up. We had to tell people they had to bag their own sand, which I hate to do, but we didn’t have a choice. Our guys just couldn’t go anymore.
“All of our workers did exceptional jobs.”

Vermilion Today

Abbeville Meridional

318 N. Main St.
Abbeville, LA 70510
Phone: 337-893-4223
Fax: 337-898-9022

The Kaplan Herald

219 North Cushing Avenue
Kaplan, LA 70548

The Gueydan Journal

311 Main Street
Gueydan, LA 70542