Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Rescue Unit rescue unit spent 48 hours searching flooded areas

After landfall, the Sheriff’s Office began high water assessments throughout the parish which is still ongoing through Monday. For 48 hours nonstop, they were in search and rescue mode looking for opportunities to rescue or help anyone in need.
They made two rescues, one in Intracoastal City, and another of St. Elmo road. They also rescued a heard of goats, that was about to drown.
As of Monday, the Sheriffs Office resumed normal operations with the patrol division running assessments for impassible roadways. Their post-storm rescue operations were suspended as of Sunday evening, remaining on call out for any additional rescues.
The Sheriff attended and participated in the Emergency Management meetings twice a day and could also be seen scouting the parish for damage and high water and spending time with his emergency ops management team.
Today, Sheriff Mike Couvillon is once again reminding motorists not to drive on flooded roadways.
.”When deciding whether or not to attempt to navigate a flooded roadway, this phrase can be useful: “When in doubt, turn around, don’t drown.’ Please keep residents in mind and do not allow your vehicle to cause wakes.”
Now that everything has calmed down, Sheriff Couvillon thanks his fellow Vermilion parish residents for being alert, patient and understanding throughout the storm.
“Although Barry was no Rita, we should never forget that any gulf storm has the potential to become a RITA without much notice and we must always prepare, have a plan and put the plan to use in a moments notice. We can never let a storm like Barry cause us to let our guard down when dealing with hurricanes”, said Sheriff Mike Couvillon.
The Sheriff thanked TEAM-VPSO and all the other deputies working behind the scenes for a job well done.
“A big thank you to our team,” said Sheriff Couvillon. “To our dispatchers and master control desk Sgts handling the phone lines and dispatching calls for service, to our patrol deputies who had double shift duty to monitor conditions and provide extra patrols before during and after the storm, to our detectives assigned to rescue missions and special details, to our corrections officers locking down the jail and manning their security posts, to our civil division deputies and narcotic task force members assigned to rescue mission and special details, to our reserve deputies helping with rescue and patrol missions, to our support staff who provided meals and last but not least to the supervisors, who helped me lead Team VPSO to another successful mission through Hurricane Barry.
“No one person can be successful unless his/her team is successful and for that, I am both humbled and proud to lead such a wonderful team of brave men and women” added Couvillon.