Calcasieu Parish honors staff and agencies for response to Winter Storm Enzo

Calcasieu Parish Police Jury members on Jan. 30 publicly commended parish employees and partner agencies for their work during Winter Storm Enzo, which brought rare snow, wind and freezing temperatures to the area.

President Barris and jurors praised multiple departments — Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP), Engineering and Public Works, Waterworks operations, Facilities, Finance and Payroll, Public Health Services, Human Resources, Mosquito Control, Animal Services, IT, Communications and media — for planning, staffing warming centers, maintaining water systems, protecting chemicals and sheltering animals.

President Barris said OEP coordinated with local, state and private entities to ensure a response before, during and after the event. He singled out emergency-management coordination and daily monitoring, and jurors commended individual staff for “going above and beyond” to keep services operating. The Insurance Committee later told the Jury that risk management and finance efforts produced large insurance premium savings but jurors kept the focus of the recognition on operational response to the storm.

Jurors also highlighted collaboration with neighboring jurisdictions to respond to capacity needs at warming centers and to address isolated water outages caused by equipment or electrical faults. Several jurors specifically thanked Dane Bolen in emergency management for coordination with state partners and consistent communication with parish leadership.

The Jury’s remarks were a formal recognition of employees’ efforts; no budgetary actions were taken as part of the presentation.