GONZALES - The Ascension Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness is cautiously watching the numbers go up every day. The parish currently has the fifth-highest number of cases in Louisiana behind East Baton Rouge Parish.
 
Cases went from 65 to 91 Thursday in Ascension.
 
Rachael Wilkinson is the director at the OEP office. She said her team is working hard to monitor the numbers and supply resources where needed. This week, additional supplies were given to Chateau D’Ville nursing home in Donaldsonville.
 
“A lot of that in the medical community... gloves, gowns, masks of that need,” Wilkinson said. “We have reached out to the community, sheriff’s office has reached out and overseen donations. We have received small donations from the state and gave that to some of our medical community here.”
 
Wilkinson said this disaster is unlike any other since there’s no estimate on when it might end.
 
“Although we know what category a hurricane looks like... we are ready to respond,” Wilkinson said.
 
The Department of Public Works continues to devise a plan to get people back to work. However, with so many essential services being completed by DPW, they certainly don’t want people to get sick during times of an emergency.
 
DPW is responsible for manning the parish’s multiple pumping stations during heavy rain events.
 
“The preliminary plan will mainly consolidate efforts and really focus in on areas that are problems, blockages in channels,” DPW Director Ron Savoy said. “We are not going out right now and doing routine ditch digging.”
 
DPW says employees also won’t be going out in groups anymore. They will practice social distancing and will receive orders this week on where to report next week.