L'Observateur staff carries on despite difficult storm effects
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L’Observateur in LaPlace, La., put out its post Hurricane Isaac edition Tuesday by generator, and staffers helped deliver it on Wednesday, handing out papers at disaster assistance locations in the area. Carriers home delivered papers to all areas they could, but some subscribers have left their homes after flood waters overtook the properties.
In all, more than 7,000 homes in St. John the Baptist Parish were swamped with water from the storm. The surge also flooded major roadways including U.S. Highway 51, Belle Terre Boulevard and Interstates 10 and 55. All roadways have since reopened.
All of the parish was in the dark for several days after last Tuesday’s initial hurricane strike, and power was restored to the newspaper office on Sunday. But on Tuesday morning the power company notified the newspaper that power would be off most of the day, so the staff prepared the generator, moved computers around and spent the 90-plus degree day in the dark, working off computer screen light.
After suffering through strong winds and rain for two days and half of a third, some staffers returned to work last Friday, but because the parish’s water was not functioning in LaPlace, work had to be done from a staffer’s home in Reserve, located just a few miles away. Rhett Triche’s home didn’t have power but had running water, so the generator was hooked up there so that emails could be checked, the website could be updated and photos could be downloaded.
Triche, the paper’s graphic artist, just so happens to be the great-great-grandson of L’Observateur founder Wallace Lassiegne, who started the newspaper in 1913.
Three employees were among those whose homes flooded: Triche, who now lives in Reserve in a family home but also owns a home in LaPlace; Tasha Atwood, the paper’s community editor, legals clerk and circulation clerk; and ad rep Christine Browning, Atwood is living on the second floor while much of the first floor is gutted. Browning’s home received less water, and her family is also living in the home, minus its carpet.
The newspaper building fared well in the storm, suffering only minor damage.