The mayors and other municipal officials around St. Martin Parish were on the move Friday, preparing for the worst as Hurricane Gustav, already a killer, gathers up for a push into the Gulf.

St. Martinville Mayor Thomas Nelson said crews were already lined up to spring to the rescue around the parish should the city’s magnificent oaks come crashing down on people’s homes.

Jack Dale Delhomme, mayor of Breaux Bridge, said the biggest concern with hurricanes, usually, is being without power for days afterward.

But if it blossoms into a category 5 and comes up Vermilion Bay, it will be a new experience for everybody, Delhomme said.

Keeping or quickly restoring power is a big concern in Henderson, said Mayor Sherbin Collette – especially since there are hundreds of individual pumps powered by house current that are feeding the sewer plant.

Collette said he would personally join the crew of volunteers going around with portable generators he just purchased pumping out the sewage from homes and businesses should electrical power be lost for any length of time.

“We’re going to do it best we can,” he said. “We have 600 pumps in the ground and people will just have to wait their turn – and they’ll hve to understand they can’t use water like normal times.”

Mayor John Dugas of Parks said his biggest problem is providing for people whose homes might not withstand severe battering from a major hurricane given the fact that official shelters are no longer authorized below Interstate 10.

“They used to go to the school and that’s still stuck in their mind,” said Dugas.

He encouraged people not to wait until the last minute to decide to evacuate.

“If they wait, they might get hog-tied on the road,” Dugas said. “If they decide to go, they need to go now.”

He said he has not yet received word on where officials shelters will be open in parishes to the north of us.

Mayor Nelson’s advice was for people to stay off the street after the storm.

“I can’t remember any house in St. Martinville ever being destroyed by a hurricane,” he said. “The danger is out there in the street.”

He said Cleco has pledged a crew to help the city’s linemen get power back up as soon as possible. Provisions are in place to keep city workers at the ready for any emergency.

Breaux Bridge’s Jack Dale Delhomme said he gave city workers leave to evacuate if a category 4 or 5 threatens the city, but that “most of my people are staying.”

Collette said a recent cleanup of the main ditch draining Henderson leaves the town in good shape to contend with anything short of a deluge.

Nothing to do now but wait, the mayors said.