ST. MARY PARISH — One year after Hurricane Francine swept across St. Mary Parish, residents in communities like Lakeside say the memories of that storm remain vivid. The storm left behind flooded streets, battered homes, and broken infrastructure, but also a renewed focus on how the parish prepares for the future.
Thane Aucoin, who lives in Lakeside with his wife Sunny, recalled how quickly conditions deteriorated that day. “We were experiencing it in our backyard and the waves in the lake started getting bigger and bigger… well next thing you know the waves are washing over our wharf and the end result is behind us, lots of destruction,” Aucoin said.
For the Aucoins, the storm’s relentless pace made it especially difficult. “It was just relentless, it never let up, all night long, all afternoon… from about 1:30 on until he went to bed about 11, and it was just constant. It didn’t let up,” Sunny Aucoin said.
The family credits their hurricane shutters with giving them a measure of protection and peace of mind. “We were lucky, the hurricane shutters give you a sense of security, and we were able to crack this back one and watch the waves,” Thane Aucoin added.
St. Mary Parish President Sam Jones said the impact in Morgan City stood out to him most. “In the past I rarely saw water like I did going into the Morgan City area,” Jones said. While the levees kept out much of the storm surge, they created challenges of their own. “The levees had been done so well that Morgan City had become a bowl. When you became a bowl, the only way to get water out is to pump it out, and the pump stations that were there were just beat down and broken down,” Jones explained.
In the months since Francine, Jones has worked with the Levee District and the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) to secure funding for long-term upgrades while also putting temporary solutions in place. “The first thing that they did was put in some temporary pumps in the places that flooded so that it even won’t happen now, or it will be minimal. I don’t think it will happen, but they’ve done a good job at prepping for that,” he said.
Crews are now working on permanent upgrades to the parish’s pumping stations, with work expected to be completed by next year. Parish officials say the improvements are part of a larger effort to make sure communities like Lakeside and Morgan City are better protected when the next storm arrives.
