Hurricane Katrina: 10th anniversary

Six days later, when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the beaches of Louisiana and Mississippi, it changed the Gulf Coast landscape and people’s lives. It also had a lasting effect on Avoyelles Parish. 

Katrina brought wind and rain to Avoyelles, but it was the flood of evacuees -- not storm-caused floodwaters -- where Katrina made her mark on this parish. 

A decade later, the effects of Katrina are still evident in Avoyelles. 

After a week in which it struck Florida and then headed northwest, Hurricane Katrina hit the central Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. Over one million residents were forced to evacuate. More than 1,800 died, earning Katrina its place in history as the nation’s most devastating and costly natural disaster.

Those seeking refuge from the storm began streaming into Avoyelles the day before the hurricane hit the state. 

Many driven from their homes found refuge here and chose to remain, becoming part of the Avoyelles community.

The evacuees kept coming for several days after that. On the night of the storm, Avoyelles Parish was home to an estimated 80,000 as New Orleans emptied for its first direct-hit hurricane in decades.

“The population of Avoyelles didn’t double, but it did go up substantially in the days following the storm,” Chip Johnson said. “Some of these people stayed up to two months, either in a shelter or in someone’s home.” 

Johnson was the parish’s Office of Emergency Preparedness director at that time. He now works in the district attorney’s office.

Avoyelles’ population in 2000 was 41,481, according to the U.S. Census.

 The estimated population at the end of 2005 was 42,098. By 2014, the estimated population had dropped to 41,145.

The Avoyelles School District served 709 students displaced by Katrina. The increased number of students resulted in the parish school system receiving over $914,000 more in state Minimum Foundation Program funding for that school year, rising from $27.06 million to $27.97 million.

The numbers dropped back to normal levels the following school year.

Avoyelles Public Charter School also opened its doors to serve displaced students from the New Orleans area.

In its fifth year of operation, with grades K-10 at the time, APCS had a total enrollment of 596 in 2005 -- 86 of those due to Katrina.

500-1000 new residents

An estimated 500-1000 evacuees decided to make Avoyelles their permanent home, Johnson said. That does not include the “Canadaville” development that was established near Simmesport several weeks after the storm.

“On more than one occasion since the storm, I have talked to people who evacuated from the coast and never went back,” Johnson said. “They made Avoyelles their home. Many of them just didn’t have anything to go back to because the storm had taken everything.”

Donald Milligan, the 911 Communications District director, said people in Avoyelles opened their homes to the evacuees. 

“At one time it looked as if every family in Avoyelles was housing someone chased away by Hurricane Katrina,” Milligan said. “The sheer number of evacuees did put a strain on the public agencies.” 

Johnson said the response to the disaster victims “was a feather in the cap of Avoyelles. We showed our generosity to people who were in need.”

While the OEP and other public agencies were strained to find housing for  evacuees, businesses throughout Avoyelles had increased sales due to the influx of people. 

“economic boom ”

Local governments benefitted with increased sales tax receipts during the post-Katrina months.

“It was an economic boom for the parish,” Johnson said.

Federal disaster funds were given to evacuees for months after the storm, and much of those aid payments were spent by Katrina’s victims in local stores.

Paul Bellow, then-manager of Piggly Wiggly in Marksville and now manager of Piggly Wiggly in Bunkie, said the store could not keep items on the shelves in the months after the hurricane.

He said that people stocked up before the storm, just as they always do before a hurricane makes landfall. 

In the case of Katrina, however, “the evacuees kept coming into the store for weeks,” Bellow said. “After about eight weeks, business started to return to normal.”

School Board Finance Director Mary Bonnette said that sales tax collections for all of Avoyelles was $12.94 million in fiscal year 2005. The impact from the post-Katrina evacuation was largely responsible for sales tax collections increasing to just under $14 million in the 2006 fiscal year.