Hayes "Pete" Picou;  Newspaper Article; Cameron Parish, Louisiana
Submitter Kathy Tell
Date January 02, 2006
Source: Brenda Merchant; Lake Charles American Press    June 03, 2003       Pg. 9

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Cameron CD chief ends run 

Picou kept his parish storm wary  

   CAMERON — After 28 years at its helm, Hayes "Pete" Picou has stepped down from his position with the
Cameron Parish Civil Defense Office. 
   He recently turned over the reins of the office to its new director, Freddie Richard, during ceremonies
at the Cameron Fire Department. 
   Picou has been the driving force in getting Cameron Parish prepared to respond quickly to hurricanes. 
   When Picou was 9, Hurricane Audrey hit Cameron. He barely made it out before the storm made landfall and
the storm surge devastated the area. 
   When the storm was over, his grandmother was among the dead. 
   She had refused to leave her home when family members piled into a dump truck to make their way out of
the area. 
   "I guess it’s not that ironic that I wound up with this job after seeing the damage and number of dead
that Audrey left behind," he said. 
   He began working for the parish as both secretary and parish administrator early in his career. 
   "I was teaching school in South Cameron and saw an ad in the Cameron Pilot for a federal programs
coordinator and civil defense director and applied and got the position," he said. 
   Picou said his office was successful in securing grants for projects such as a $1.2 million Holly
Beach/Johnson Bayou water system. 
   Other projects funded by grants were the solarium for South Cameron Hospital at $600,000 and the jetty
pier boat launch at $250,000. 
   He was then given approval to have plans drawn up for the civil defense office at the Cameron Parish
Courthouse. 
   "It was revamped parishwide and became a model used by other directors charged with the job of heading
up a properly operating civil defense office," he said. 
   Among the things Picou did were to name an assistant in each community in the parish and build a 200-
member volunteer roster of people willing to help when a storm threatened the area. 
   Over the years the civil defense program has cooperated with fire departments in each community. There
are now about 150 volunteers. 
   "The communications system we first began operations with was something out of the Dark Ages. Now we
have stateof-the-art equipment where needed in the parish and people to use it," Picou said. 
   "After a while, we figured out that lower Cameron Parish could be evacuated within about four hours. We
made arrangements with folks in Lake Charles to have places for animals that needed to be taken to higher
ground and made arrangements for hospital patients to be housed in other hospitals. 
   The Calcasieu Correctional Center also allows Cameron to use some of its jail space for inmates housed
here, Picou said. 
   "As the new civil defense director, I had to learn by doing the things I felt would assure the safety of
residents here," he said. 
   "I always notified all public officials before announcing evacuation plans and always had their support
whether they agreed with the forecast or not." 
   Picou said that when he first started everyone had scanners. 
   "A lot of officials thought it was a handicap to their law enforcement efforts, but I always looked at
it like residents here were getting information firsthand if they were hearing it broadcast on our
radios," he said. 
   "There was a period of time that we had some problem with people not wanting to evacuate when a storm
was coming in. I always told them the truth about what the civil defense office felt was going to happen
and let them take it from there," he said. 
   Picou said he would continue to assist the new civil defense director, Freddie Richard, when needed. 
   "This is my home, and I love it," he said.