Local leaders from Walthall County, Lawrence County, Copiah County, Washington Parish, St. Tammany
Parish, Jefferson Parish, and Orleans Parish have been working together to secure a four-lane evacuation
route designed with contra-flow in mind. It would provide a direct route north out of New Orleans utilizing LA
HWY 25 and MS HWY 27. Not only was it expected to be the best way out of New Orleans, it was thought that it
would be the best way for emergency crews to return for recovery efforts and utility companies to transport
equipment into New Orleans. State and US legislators have shown full support of the project. Louisiana
received $ 400,000 to fund the feasibility study for their state in the recent TEA-21 Bill. Prior to the advent of
Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi Legislators US Sen. Thad Cochran, US Sen. Trent Lott, US Rep. Chip Pickering,
US Rep. Bennie Thompson and Louisiana Legislators (former) US Sen. John Breaux, US. Sen. Mary Landrieu,
US Sen. David Vitter, US Rep. Bobby Jindal have met with state and local officials on numerous occasions over
the last few years. Some of the meetings were held in Tylertown, others in Jackson, MS, Covington, LA,
Mandeville, LA and Washington, DC. Parish Presidents Aaron Broussard and M. E. “Toye” Taylor from
Louisiana worked hand in hand with mayors and supervisors from Mississippi to advance this cause. As
mentioned by Marian Livaudais at the meeting sponsored by Mr. Rodney Hart, the homeland security manager
of St. Tammany Parish, “This state line was not drawn by God.” How true. Mississippi and Louisiana folks have
worked together for this goal. Mayor Ray Nagin sent Chief Terry Tullier and Col. Terry Ebbert to meet with
Sen. Trent Lott and state and local officials in January of 2004 in Tylertown, MS about this evacuation route.
Many others have shown interest in this evacuation route and put in long hours into helping it become a reality.
They include but are not limited to Mayor Dave Nichols (Monticello), Supervisor Ken Craft (Walthall County),
Mayor Ed Hughes (Tylertown), Mayor Arthur "Pokey" Evans (Crystal Springs), former Mayor of Crystal Springs -
Walter Rilley, Mayor Earle Brown (Franklinton), Mayor Marshell Brumfield (Folsom) Mayor Candice Watkins
(Covington), Mayor Ray Nagin (New Orleans), and many others. Louisiana State Representative Ben Nevers,
our neighbor across state lines to the south, appealed to the state legislature to show support for the project,
and they did. We appreciate the efforts of all involved and want everyone know that as a community we will
continue to focus on this project because we feel that it is just as important, maybe even more so, as we did
prior to this event. We, as are many, are saddened by what has happened and realize that an additional route
would have lifted some of the burden on the existing routes, and perhaps, helped in ways other than
convenience. Thank you to all of our US legislators, state legislators from Mississippi and Louisiana, local
leaders/officials and volunteers from all of the involved communities, who have worked with us over the last
two+ years and we know that you will continue to put the effort into this project that we all feel that it deserves.
Newspaper Articles
ARTICLE - Tylertown Times 9-1-05
ARTICLE REGARDING THE EVACUATION ROUTE FUNDING - Aug 18, 2005 St. Tammany Farmer Newspaper
Letters of Support
Town of Franklinton Jan-28-2004
Jefferson Parish June-14-2004
We are updating this information and have many newspaper articles and letters of support to share - it is a slow
process - please return soon.
LA 25/MS 27 Four-lane Evacuation Route Project
