Horse Owners Seek Shelter at Historically Used Taxpayer Arena to be Met With Locked Gates

1940PM | 8.8.20 | Speed Media

Horse owners sought refuge at the Civic Center covered Arena on 171 during Laura, and some may not have had homes to come back to. With debris everywhere still from Laura, and half-built/half-destroyed barns. The Arena has been historically used for evacuations, even during Katrina and Rita, but now, all of that has changed.

Some residents called the Beauregard Parish Police Jury, to be told that the Police Jury doesn’t run the Civic Center Covered Arena. One woman does. That woman is Angela Hickman. When provided with her phone number, multiple panicked residents attempted to call Mrs. Hickman, but it went to voicemail, which was full, and most never received call-backs.

Many people went in person to be met with locked gates, and some were told it was due to event booking. The person who booked the event, cancelled it not only for the hurricane, but so the Arena could be used for evacuees.

Then the next reason was due to the Arena manager wanting to avoid clean-up before the next booked event, which didn’t seem to corroborate the original idea that people had previously booked the Arena, every stall, therefore clean-up would’ve had to have taken place again.

Then after that logic failed, the next excuse entailed the arena manager not wanting evacuees seeking shelter with horses to stay too long if the homes they were seeking safety from were destroyed.

So many people have returned to their farms with their horses to anticipate just that. Speed Media, DeRidder Louisiana.