High water rising: A voluntary evacuation order for parts of Ascension Parish, including St. Amant, Acy and Sorrento, has been issued because of anticipated rising waters from the aftermath of Isaac. Ascension Parish President Tommy Martinez says the voluntary evacuation is a precautionary measure, adding a shelter has been activated for parish residents at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center’s Trade Mart building, 9039 St. Landry Road in Gonzales, to be operated by the Red Cross. You can see a map of Ascension Parish and the areas advised to evacuate here; and get all the details at the parish government’s website here.
Take the long way home: The superintendent of the Louisiana State Police says there will be few state troopers helping with security and traffic at the LSU football game Saturday. Col. Mike Edmonson says the state police’s priority isn’t the LSU game, but rather recovery and flood response efforts from Isaac. Edmonson says the state police normally stations 50 to 80 troopers at an LSU game. He says it’ll be a far smaller group, about 15 troopers, for the Tigers’ game against North Texas in Tiger Stadium on Saturday night. He warns people going to the game that they can expect to spend more time in traffic.
Defining terms: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has written an open letter to fans explaining the NFL’s strict policy against bounty systems such as the one league investigators have said they uncovered in New Orleans. Goodell says this year there will be “clear, consistent and renewed emphasis” on enforcing the NFL’s longstanding bounty prohibition. Goodell describes bounty programs as those that provide incentives for plays resulting in injuries, or even “for performance against an opposing player, group of players, or team.” Read the full letter here.
In the dark: Power, phone and Internet access was all lost at the Louisiana Workforce Commission headquarters in Baton Rouge this afternoon, disrupting access to all of its services. That’s left those wanting to file for unemployment insurance unable to do so, either on line, in person or by phone. The agency says it’s working closely with the Office of Technology Management and Entergy to restore operations as quickly as possible, but gave no estimate on when that was likely.
