Area mostly avoids utility issues

Parish officials said the area mostly avoided any issues with power lines, water lines or gas lines.
Cleco Spokeswoman Robbyn Cooper said Cleco’s outages in St. Mary Parish were “scattered and very limited.”
The parish saw more sleet than freezing rain, and, therefore, the sleet did not accumulate on power lines and trees like freezing rain can, Cooper said.
“We were very fortunate,” St. Mary Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Director Duval Arthur said. “Cleco sent five or six out-of-town trucks over to St. Mary Parish and had them on standby in the Franklin area because that’s where we anticipated we’d get most of our outages.”
Morgan City Utilities Director Bill Cefalu said the city did not experience any outages overnight. Morgan City Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi said a water line broke behind the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium, but the break was minor and only affected the auditorium. City workers were waiting to repair the line until the temperature warmed up some this morning, he said.
City workers also repaired a water line on Federal Avenue in Morgan City that broke around noon Tuesday, and were working to repair another water line break on Federal Avenue as of 11 a.m. today, Grizzaffi said.
A sewer line also cracked on Greenwood Street at Federal Avenue this morning, Grizzaffi said.
Patterson Mayor Rodney Grogan said Patterson did not experience any power outages or gas or water loss overnight. Berwick Mayor Louis Ratcliff said the town did not have any power outages or water line or gas line issues.
SLECA Spokesman Mark Caldwell said SLECA also did not have any outages reported in the area.