On the Northshore, emergency officials say they have been preparing for this year's hurricane season for many months.
"It takes all year to plan..for the hurricane season," said Dexter Accardo, St. Tammany's Director of Homeland Security and Director of Emergency Preparedness.
Listen to WWL's Dave Cohen's conversation with Dexter Accardo about this year's hurricane season:
Accardo says the planning has covered all conceivable scenarios, including the evacuation of four-legged friends.
"This past Sunday we spent eight hours working on our pet plan, which includes the evacuation and sheltering of pets," Accardo said.
According to Accardo, not much has improved in the parish since the storms of 2005 in terms of major infrastructure to stave off flooding.
"I would say actually not," he said. "I think we're still vulnerable to a major surge, through the Rigolettes into Lake Pontchartrain."
However, Accardo says that residents, especially younger residents and those new to Southeast Louisiana, are now again fully aware of the danger storms pose to the northshore, due to the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina to the Northshore in 2005.
"I think we have a new generation of people living in the area in the area...that now know what the vulnerability is of the parish," Accardo said.
And, he says, the lines of communication are better in both directions.
"We're better off at informing the public and educating the public" than before Katrina, he said.
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