Jared Maze began his tenure as director of the Calcasieu Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness in May — just one month before the official start of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. It’s the first time in 20 years the parish has had a new director.
“I spent the last two and a half years under Dick Gremillion’s leadership before I took the role, so he kind of mentored me into it while I was the assistant director. But with his 30-plus years, it’s hard to get all that knowledge in just two and a half years,” he said with a laugh. “Luckily, though, he’s still around and he’ll call me and give me advice. That’s a very valuable asset to me.”
Maze is a longtime Louisiana resident and served in the U.S. Army for four years followed by a 22-year stint with the National Guard. He’s worked for the parish since 2022 and is a graduate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Basic Emergency Academy.
Although he’s gone through many hurricanes in his lifetime, this will be his first season as director.
Officially, the Atlantic Hurricane Season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30, but the majority of the storms usually appear from late August through October. This season has already brought two hurricanes, Beryl and Debby, and more are likely on the way.
“The 2024 hurricane season is supposed to be an extremely active year due to weather conditions and the warming of the Atlantic and the Gulf,” he told members of the Lake Charles Kiwanis Club. “The National Hurricane Center predicts 17-25 named storms; on a 30-year average, that number is normally about 14. As far as hurricanes, they’re predicting 13.”
Maze said one of his main concerns with hurricane season is rapid intensification.
“During Hurricane Laura, it went from a tropical storm to a Category 4 in roughly 24-36 hours so that impacts us with the decision-making process as we look at our operational plan,” he said. “In the Pacific, Hurricane Otis hit Oct. 21-22 last year and it developed from a tropical storm to a Cat 5 in 24 hours with 165 mph winds. The decision-making process had to be quick in terms of calling for evacuations. The result was 44 deaths and 58 individuals remain unaccounted for. This has changed our process as we study past storms and revise our plan. Our hurricane-tracking process used to start 120 hours out and we’d start making decisions, going through our check list, making sure everything is online.”
Now, his office has to be prepared faster.
“The Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness hired a full-time meteorologist to work for them so they start tracking earlier further out in the Atlantic and we’ve started doing the same,” Maze said. “We work with the local National Weather Service here in Lake Charles and we start tracking earlier so we can go through our timeline process faster so if we do have rapid intensification we can make decisions early.”
He said if it becomes necessary to call for an evacuation, there is a method to the madness.
“Cameron Parish needs to evacuate first,” Maze said. “The population is low, but we need to get them out and push through before us so that we don’t block any roads to where we can’t get everybody out.”
He said during an evacuation, Southwest Louisiana does not do the contraflow plan — instead his office coordinates with northern Louisiana parishes to ensure U.S. 171 is open in both directions for one-way travel. Roadways heading south are kept open for emergency responders to use.
Should an evacuation be necessary this year, Maze encourages residents to visit getaplan.org to get a list on what to bring, such as important documents and prescriptions. He also encourages residents to have cash on hand because upon their return to the area, businesses might not be fully operational and able to handle credit and debit card transactions. He also recommends keeping a written communications list because if cell service is down, a digital list might not be accessible.
Maze said his office has a mobile operations center at their disposal. The center includes four independent workstations, a control center and a conference room that can accommodate 18 people. The center also can run two cell services and has satellite service capabilities. The center is moved out of the area before a storm strikes, then returned after the storm passes to help the area recover faster.
During the AT&T outage in February, Maze said he was able to park the mobile center in a nearby parking garage and project a signal out to keep phone and internet service running for the city of Lake Charles and the 911 operations building.
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