Iberia Parish and New Iberia city officials are taking nothing for granted as they urge residents to prepare for flooding after Tropical Storm Gordon moved into the Gulf of Mexico on Monday morning and was expected to make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane to the east tonight or Wednesday morning, bringing heavy rainfall, storm surge and high winds with it to the Gulf Coast.

“We have been meeting with the National Weather Service for the last couple of days,” Iberia Parish President Larry Richard said early Monday afternoon.  

“Our last meeting was this morning at 10:30 a.m. We’ve been posting everything on Iberia Parish Government’s website and Facebook,” Richard said Monday afternoon. 

Parish and city officials, including the Iberia Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, are scheduled to meet again at 10:30 a.m. today.

Iberia and St. Mary parishes have made sand and sandbags available to the public, a spokesman announced Sunday. (See list on Page 1.)

Forecasters predict Tropical Storm Gordon to make landfall somewhere in southeast Louisiana or near the Louisiana-Mississippi state line late tonight or early Wednesday. Although the area isn’t in the storm’s predicted track, officials are urging precaution. 

“We still have to monitor this storm very close because we don’t want to be surprised. If we are surprised residents will be surprised,” Richard said. 

“It’s forecast to make landfall east of us into Mississippi and Alabama areas but you never know because if this thing stalls it can turn,” he said.

Richard said Iberia Parish Government takes the hurricane season very seriously. He also said local officials monitor the situation as though the storm will come our way. 

This is especially so in areas that are prone to flood with very little rain, such as the Rynella and Patoutville communities, he said,

Some residents endured a downpour Monday afternoon to go to the Rynella Fire Station and load sandbags. Todd Anslum with the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s office was one of them. 

“My job takes me away from home for the storm,” Anslum said.

“So I am going to try to prepare the best I can so if anything does happen I’ll have everything ready for my wife, Mallory, and my children Reese and Gage, if I’m not at my house,” he said. 

Colleen Gros of New Iberia tossed her rain-drenched hair to the side as she helped her boyfriend, Purvis Meaux, fill sandbags for his home. 

“I’m originally from Morgan CIty,” Gros said 

“We lived on the bayou so we always did sandbags. I think it’s just a good way to protect your home your belongings, just a good way to be prepared for the worst,” she said.

Her boyfriend was busy tying filled bags and throwing them in the back of his pickup truck. He said he needed about 20 to get the job done.

“We want to protect our animals,” Meaux said. 

“I have animals that are low to the ground — chickens, quails, dogs and ducks — and I’m going to surround my pin with sandbags so they don’t drown,” he said.

Richard said local officials will be paying particular attention to rain bands that may form as a result of the storm. 

The National Weather Service said Monday afternoon that it is too early to say exactly where any rainbands will be set up Wednesday through Friday. The rainbands are typically 20 to 30 miles wide and can extend more than 100 miles, according to NWS.