SLIDELL - Slidell Mayor Ben Morris may want to contact Slidell Police the next time he rallies Baton Rouge highway officials to widen roads after what has become a nightmare of near gridlock from the influx of Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
Traffic accidents in Slidell have nearly doubled since this time last year, and the estimated 60,000 new cars in St. Tammany Parish are forcing officers to spread their resources thin, responding to one accident after another, Slidell Police Capt. Rob Callahan said after crunching the numbers Monday.
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Morris was in Hammond recently with several state representatives and other St. Tammany Parish officials who sounded off a unified plea urging the committee to fast track hurricane relief money to improve roadways and compensate for the parish's booming population.
On the south side of Slidell, Morris said many of the roads are so clogged with added evacuee drivers and roadside debris that driving is nearly impossible.
Virtually no roadway in Slidell is spared. From Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 last year, Slidell Police responded to 544 accidents.
That number boomed to 906 this year with almost double the normal amount of traffic, especially on highly traversed areas such as Gause Boulevard, Northshore Boulevard and Front Street, Callahan said.
In 2005, from Jan 1 until Jan. 16 there were 89 accidents. During that time this year the number has leaped to 135, kicking off what could be a record year for accidents, Callahan said.
"Patience. Patience. Patience," Slidell Police Chief Freddy Drennan said, over and over.
But Morris' patience has nearly expired. Somehow Slidell has morphed into Katrina's forgotten stepchild, ignored by the media and tossed in back pages of newspapers - if at all - while the Lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans becomes the spotlight of nationwide media interest, he said.
"I'm so, so sick of the Lower Ninth Ward getting all the attention," Morris has said. "We have our own Lower Ninth Ward here. I want to get everyone from the west side of the parish and take a tour here. I was talking from a friend from Covington, and he told me, 'I had no idea it was that bad.'"
Morris shook his head and threw his hands in the air. The traffic just seems to claw away at residents' already frustrated lives, he said.
Callahan said there 20 accidents on Gause Boulevard during the weekend, echoing why Slidell Police reinstated a three-officer patrol division that exclusively handles wrecks since Katrina.
"What they're doing is getting the information, clearing the roadway and going to another (accident)," Callahan said. "It's just not stopping."
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