Hurricanes and emergencies
Hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30. The time to plan is before a storm is in the Gulf: sign up for alerts, learn your route out, and know where to get sandbags.
Get alerts
Calcashout
Calcasieu Parish's alert system, by text, email and phone call. Since March 2026 it also sends road closures, boil advisories and community news. The parish emergency office can help you sign up.
- Text
- CALCASHOUT to 78015
- Website
- calcashout.com
- Help
- (337) 721-3800
City alerts
Lake Charles and Sulphur each send their own notices, for things like trash schedule changes and water outages.
- Lake Charles
- Sign up for city alerts
- Sulphur
- Sign up for Sulphur alerts
Weather, roads and water levels
Official forecasts, the state's preparedness app, road conditions and the parish's rain and flood gauges.
- Forecasts
- weather.gov/lch
- State app
- Get A Game Plan
- Flood gauges
- cppj.onerain.com
Evacuating
If you need a ride out
In a mandatory evacuation the parish runs buses from pickup points to state shelters. Pickup sites are announced for each storm on calcashout.com. In past storms they included fire stations, ball fields and store parking lots in Bell City, Carlyss, DeQuincy, Iowa, Moss Bluff, Starks, Sulphur, Vinton and Westlake.
- Can't reach a pickup?
- Dial 2-1-1, or call (337) 721-3800
Sandbags
Parish sandbag sites
Free to Calcasieu residents when flooding threatens. The parish posts which sites are open on calcashout.com before each event. These are the sites it has used.
- Staffed
- 810 Ruth St, Sulphur
- Staffed
- Public Works East, 5500-B Swift Plant Rd, Lake Charles
- Self-serve
- Ward 1 Barn, 461 Parish Rd, Moss Bluff
- Self-serve
- Ward 2 Barn, 7085 LA 14 E, Hayes
- Self-serve
- Ward 3 Old Barn, 2302 Smith Rd
- Self-serve
- Ward 5 Barn, 129 Third St, Starks
- Self-serve
- Ward 6 Barn, 1275 Plum St, DeQuincy
- Self-serve
- Ward 8 Barn, 1726 Parish Barn Rd, Iowa
- Self-serve
- Iowa City Hall ball field, 115 N. Thomson Ave
Parish emergency offices
Offices of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness
Each parish runs its own emergency office, which issues evacuation orders and opens shelters and sandbag sites.
- Calcasieu
- (337) 721-3800
- Cameron
- (337) 775-7048
- Jefferson Davis
- (337) 246-5588
- Allen
- (337) 639-3091
- Beauregard
- (337) 401-9578
After the storm
Help after a disaster
Numbers to keep on paper, in case your phone's contacts are out of reach.
- FEMA
- 1-800-621-3362
- FEMA TTY
- 1-800-462-7585
- Disaster Distress Helpline
- 1-800-985-5990
- Red Cross
- (337) 478-5011
- Salvation Army
- (337) 721-8068
- Acadiana Legal Service
- 1-866-275-2572
- Find a shelter
- Text SHELTER and your ZIP code to 43362
- Entergy outages
- 1-800-968-8243
Know something we missed?
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