LIVINGSTON PARISH - In the final few hours before Tropical Storm Gordon makes landfall, residents in Watson stocked up on essentials.

"It's better to be safe than sorry. That's all we're doing," said Hershell Bean.

The Walmart in Watson was temporarily out of bottled water Tuesday morning, which was a surprise to Parish President Layton Ricks.

"I was a little surprised to hear that, because I haven't gotten those calls," he said. 

Those calls are from concerned residents that Ricks says he gets every time it rains. "I really thought my phone would be ringing off the hook, it actually has not been," said Ricks.

After the Great Flood of 2016, residents have been weary of any possibility of flooding, but Ricks says he hasn't seen that sense of urgency with this storm.

"I don't think it's going to be bad." said Livingston resident Wesley Pierce. "We're just worried about lights going out and electricity with the wind."

"We certainly don't want to alarm or scare anyone, but at the same time we want everyone to be prepared because as most people know you never know how these things are going to gain strength and bobble once they get closer to the coast," Ricks told WBRZ. "This thing has moved a little bit to the east, but we don't want everybody to get complacent either."

He says he's confident the storm won't be too bad, but wants people especially in the southern part of the parish to be ready.

"Typically our biggest problem is the push back from the tide which brings the water in. Which means, probably from Interstate 12 down we need to have more sand in sandbags than in the northern part because that's where they're going to probably see some flooding," he added.