Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet met Thursday afternoon with the Parish President’s of the 6 coastal parishes, Mr. Doug Suttles of British Petroleum America, and Admiral Mary Landry of the United States Coast Guard. Terrebonne Parish continues to get assurances that the Terrebonne Parish defensive plan and posture is fully supported by BP and the Coast Guard. The thought process is to stage assets where the highly probability of landfall of oil. Assets were deployed to Grand Isle yesterday for the first time. BP and Coast Guard officials are in agreement with Terrebonne’s plan of specific locations for boom placement which will be integrated into the state response plan. While the plan was agreed upon, there is some level of flexibility in its implementation as conditions change. BP and Coastal Guard Officials indicated they will handle the procurement and costs of boom and other necessary items to protect the areas specified by Terrebonne Parish and state plans. Terrebonne Parish has reached out to the Parishes contracted vendors for supply and service information and several are poised to step in to help the parish monitor boom placement and deployment strategies as well as remediation afterward should that be necessary. “While the daily watching and waiting is causing a considerable amount of angst among many people, it should be noted that as Friday morning, NOAA projections still do not show the potential oil coming anywhere near the Terrebonne Parish coast. We are sixteen days into this event and very little oil has progressed west of the mouth of the river. We are cognizant of the fact however that conditions are subject to change and we will not let our guard down.” stated President Claudet. Weather projections for this weekend are favorable to the oil being pushed away from shore. The Small Business Administration has announced the availability of Economic Injury Disaster Loans this morning for most of Southeast Louisiana and some neighboring counties along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The SBA is working to stand up outreach centers in the affected region. Parish residents are urged to visit the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government website for more information. The address is www.tpcg.org. # # #

Additional Information

• Original Press Release