News

Customers on the Jena Gas System in the Belah Community were again a topic for discussion during the Jena Town Council regular September meeting held Tuesday night of last week.

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A Saturday afternoon shooting in Jena left one dead and another in a hospital as police continue to sort out the details of what happened.

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One of the greatest benefits to living in a rural parish is when disasters strike it seems to always bring out the best in residents.

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LaSalle Parish’s COVID-19 numbers continue to decline after a spike three weeks ago while Governor John Bel Edwards extended his Phase 2 restrictions another two weeks.

According to LaSalle’s Office of Emergency Preparedness Assistant Director Dana Chapman, the parish only had 66 new positive cases during the last two weeks compared to 77 the period before and 106 before that.

“Since April 6, we have had 319 positive tests in our parish when you take out duplicates, prison addresses, and individuals on our list that don’t reside here,” Chapman said. “Thankfully, our numbers seem to indicate we are on a downward trend of new positive cases.”

On Wednesday of last week the day before Hurricane Laura made landfall, Gov. Edwards informed the state he would keep the state in Phase 2 for another two weeks. That extension is set to expire September 11.

Hurricane Laura shut down parish schools just one day after the 2020-21 school year began last week but officials are hoping to restart next week.

All students in the LaSalle Parish School System were divided up into two separate groups with the first group attending school Wednesday, August 26. The second group was set to attend their first day Thursday, August 27, but with Hurricane Laura bearing down on the state officials canceled that day announcing they would wait and see what impact the hurricane had before making a decision to restart school.

By daylight Thursday morning, it was clear school would not resume the rest of the week. Over the weekend, as the entire parish was out of electricity, officials announced school would not resume for several days.

When category 4 Hurricane Laura hit the southwest coast of Louisiana early Thursday morning, August 27, LaSalle Parish knew it would be on the east side of the storm meaning the chance of significant damage was strong.

The hurricane had 150 mph winds at landfall and by the time it made it into Central Louisiana, it was still a category 1 hurricane with winds in excess of 70 mph.

High winds were responsible for blowing down hundreds of trees across LaSalle, many landing on top of homes and vehicles.

“To our knowledge, we only had one person treated for injuries in relation to this hurricane and there were no deaths,” LaSalle Parish Sheriff and Office of Emergency Preparedness Director said. “Once we saw the devastation that had occurred from Laura, we knew we were a blessed parish to not have more injuries or deaths. We give thanks to God for that.”

All of LaSalle was without electricity for several days following Hurricane Laura’s devastating path through the area last Thursday. High winds blew down hundreds of trees on power lines and in some cases, like shown above on LA 125 just south of Olla, snapped power poles downing lines. Entergy’s main transmission line was destroyed and it wasn’t until Sunday before some residents saw relief. (See story.)

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Long-time Olla Mayor Ray Bernard Miller, 97, passed from this life peacefully on Friday, August 21, 2020, at the Winn Parish Medical Center in Winnfield. He served as Mayor of Olla for a dozen years.

He was born on October 22, 1922 at Kelly, to the union of his parents, Ray Thomas Miller and Lottie Ethel Humphries Miller.

Mr. Miller, known to many as “Bernard” and to others as “Ray”, was a devoted member of the Olla United Methodist Church and always provided the children with peppermints on Sundays. He loved the youth of his church and community.

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Residents of LaSalle Parish made preparations over the weekend for a historic weather event predicted for this week.

For the first time in recorded history, there is a possibility of two hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time and both were predicted to impact Louisiana.

As of early Monday morning, Hurricane Marco had been downgraded to a Tropical Storm and it was set to have minimal influence on severe weather in the parish, but Hurricane Laura is said to be a major hurricane on a direct path through Central Louisiana.

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The number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in LaSalle Parish but not as many cases were reported as this time last week.

A week ago Monday, parish officials reported 106 new cases and this past Monday officials report only 74 new cases.

“We’re still seeing people test positive for COVID-19 but the significant rise we saw a couple of weeks ago appears to be over,” LaSalle Parish Sheriff Scott Franklin said. “It’s here and it’s making it’s way through our parish and our hospitals have seen an increase in coronavirus patients either admitted or coming through their emergency rooms.”

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