Mother Nature is picking the wrong day to inundate Louisiana with severe weather. Meteorologist Matt Hemingway with the National Weather Service in Shreveport says severe weather is forecast to move across North Louisiana, but could it possibly extend south into Central Louisiana.
Either way, that’s going to put a damper on Mardi Gras parades for Fat Tuesday as Carnival season draws to a close. Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng has cancelled both of tomorrow’s parades due to high winds. Sheng says if those wind speeds are high enough to keep buses and Entergy crews off the roads, they’re certainly high enough to make conditions for a parade unsafe.
Cut 4 (14) “…tents, chairs, tarps.”
While parades in Jefferson Parish have been called off for tomorrow, we’re still awaiting official word from New Orleans on the status of its parades. Collin Arnold, New Orleans’ director of homeland security and emergency preparedness, says with tomorrow being the end of Carnival season, rescheduling parades is much more tricky.
Cut 25 (09) “…do to reschedule.”
Arnold says while some floats are built to withstand high winds, others are a lot older and are less likely to do so. A little further west, parade times have been moved up in the towns of Kaplan, Crowley, New Roads and Franklin with severe weather moving in.