In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Arthur, rising waters can displace wildlife species from flooded habitats causing them to seek higher ground into nearby residential and commercial areas with which they may not be familiar, potentially increasing the likelihood of their encounters with people. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) urges the public to be especially cognizant of wildlife and to avoid contact with displaced animals as they seek temporary refuge.

Wild animals do not pose a threat to humans and should be left alone and not be fed.  Feeding wild animals may encourage them to remain near an artificial food source rather than relocating to natural habitat and finding food on their own once flood waters subside.

Basic Tips:

* Avoid areas where displaced wildlife has taken refuge.
* Avoid interaction with and do not feed displaced wildlife.
* Avoid roadways near flooded areas to reduce likelihood of disturbance and collisions with wildlife.

To report nuisance or displaced wildlife, see the LDWF Nuisance Wildlife Control webpage.

Species of Concern:
 
Black Bears:  The Louisiana black bear is a species of concern during a flood incident when high water moves bears out of their habitat. For assistance with black bears that may be forced into populated areas by flood waters, contact your local LDWF Region Office.

Alligators, Snakes: Flood waters will carry reptiles into populated areas where they may not normally be noted in significant numbers. Following the impact of flood waters, exercise extreme caution when salvaging possessions from flooded areas. Wildlife, especially reptiles, may remain in flooded areas and pose a safety threat.
 
Venomous snake species in Louisiana include the canebrake rattlesnake, the copperhead, the cottonmouth, the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, the harlequin coral snake, the pygmy rattlesnake and the Texas coral snake. 

To report nuisance or displaced alligators, see the LDWF Nuisance Alligator webpage.

Deer, Feral Hogs: Deer and feral hog populations represent the two large quadruped species that may appear in populated areas in significant numbers as flood waters move wild animals out of natural habitat. As is the case with all wild animals, how these species will react to humans in close contact situations is unpredictable. LDWF recommends allowing these species, when sighted individually or in groups, to move unimpeded through flooded areas as they seek higher ground.

For other wildlife related emergencies, contact the LDWF Enforcement Dispatch number at 1-800-442-2511.

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In sports there’s nothing better than playing at home. Doesn’t matter if it’s a regular season game or a playoff game, playing at home in front of your home crowd can make a huge difference in the outcome of the game.

But there is one sport where the “home field advantage” doesn’t always pan out. In fact, it can actually be a disadvantage! The sport would be tournament bass fishing. 

When you’re the “local” angler, you are usually considered the favorite due to the amount of success and knowledge you have about the lake/river.

Anglers always look forward to fishing an event on their home water. It’s an opportunity to sleep in your own bed, eat a good home cooked meal and everything is very routine. You tend to be more relaxed, but you also feel the pressure of being the favorite.

Then as you prepare for the tournament, you put a game plan together that usually involves looking at past history. This is where things can go wrong!

Just like people, anglers are creatures of habit and tend to lean towards fishing the same way we have in the past, especially when we’ve been successful on our home lake/river. 

When you are fortunate enough to have an event on your home water, you want to make a good showing and hopefully bring home a win. 

But why is there so much pressure on the angler who is fishing his home lake? Here’s the problem. Because you know the lake/river so well and you know so many good areas that hold fish, you can’t decide which area you should hit first. 

Do you go where you caught them last year at this same time, or go where you caught them two years ago where you won the tournament? Too much history on a body of water can really clutter the brain and destroy a game plan. 

Then you decide to go with your gut and start in area A where you’ve done well in the past. But after you start fishing this area on tournament day with little to no success, you start to question your decision. 

Now confusion or panic sets in and you really start thinking too much! So, then you decide to fall back to Plan B to try and salvage the day and just make a good showing. 

Too much knowledge on any body of water can be detrimental to putting a good game plan together and is the fear of every angler who fishes their home water, especially in a big event.  

Sometimes you’re better off throwing history out the window and approach the lake like you would any body of water you’ve never fished before. This is why scouting before an event is so important. Pay attention to what the fish are doing at that particular time and make your game plan around that.

All anglers at some point make fishing complicated. We tend to try and outsmart the fish and end up outsmarting ourselves. While I’m not sure who said it, but the words “keep it simple stupid” are very fitting for bass anglers! 

Contact Steve at sgraf26@yahoo.com

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Bunkie High School is collecting plastic totes to help flooded communities in Avoyelles Parish. Totes are one of the items they’re in need of right now, so if anyone has any extras at home or would like to donate totes, BHS would appreciate the donation.

Drop-off times and locations are as follows.

Wednesday, June 24, 7am to 12pm – Bunkie Football Field

Thursday, June 25, 7:45am to 11:30am – Bunkie Softball Field

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I had it. Oh, I had it.

The greatest idea in the history of these Ponderings. Pulitzerworthy. Heavensanctioned. The kind of idea that makes you sit up straighter in your car at the Walgreens red light and think, “Well now… that’s good.”

I remember exactly where I was when it arrived. I was headed to Tractor Supply to look at things I will never use in my life. I call this “expanding my horizons,” though my horizons remain suspiciously unchanged. Still, there I sat—traffic creeping, inspiration soaring. The idea was brilliant. It was illuminating. It was humorous. It was under six hundred words. It was perfect.

And then a voice in my head whispered, “This one is unforgettable. No need to write it down.”

Never trust that voice. That voice lies. That voice is the same one that says, “You don’t need a grocery list,” and “You’ll remember where you parked,” and “You can fix that without reading the instructions.”

The truth is: I have absolutely no idea what the idea was. None. I don’t know if it was about faith or farming or ferrets. I don’t know if it was animal, mineral, or vegetable. It has vanished. Gone. Evaporated. Or worse—someone else posted it on social media this morning and is now being hailed as a genius. If you read something brilliant, illuminating, and humorous today, it was probably mine.

I do remember this much: it had something to do with a Yiddish proverb I’m using in a sermon later this month. It goes like this: “If one man calls you an ass, pay him no mind. If two men call you an ass—go buy a saddle.” I thought it was brilliant, illuminating, and humorous. I just forgot what else went with it.

Do you forget?  Because I do. More and more. As I grow more “mature” (which is the polite churchnewsletter way of saying “things are starting to creak”), I’ve noticed my mind isn’t quite as quick as it once was. I forget names. I forget appointments. I forget why I walked into the kitchen. I even forgot to read an online article about remembering not to forget.

But here’s the tender truth tucked inside all this forgetfulness:

God remembers you. Every bit of you. Not the polished version you wish you were—you. He remembers you with love, with delight, with the kind of attention usually reserved for an only child. And while God remembers you, He chooses to forget something else entirely:

Your sins. When you confess them, He doesn’t file them, store them, or keep them in a drawer labeled “For Later Use.” He forgets them. Completely. Eternally. Joyfully. So if God has forgotten your sins, why are you still lugging them around like a saddle you never needed to buy?

Maybe the real brilliance—the idea I lost somewhere between Walgreens and Tractor Supply—is simply this:

Your memory may fail you, but God’s mercy never does.  And that’s something worth remembering.

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June 24 marks the anniversary of the event that helped launch America’s modern fascination with unidentified flying objects.

On June 24, 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine bright, unidentified objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier. His account became one of the first UFO sightings to receive widespread national attention in the years following World War II.

Arnold was flying near the mountain when he said the objects moved rapidly across the sky. He described their motion as similar to a saucer skipping across water. News reports interpreted the description as referring to the objects’ shape, helping popularize the phrase “flying saucer.”

The objects were never definitively identified. Arnold initially considered whether they could have been experimental military aircraft, but officials said no test flights were taking place in the area at that time.

The report was followed by a surge of similar sightings across the country and helped establish the public interest in UFOs that would continue for decades. While accounts of unusual objects in the sky existed long before 1947, the Arnold sighting is widely regarded as a starting point for the modern UFO era.

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I absolutely believe Americans have a lot more in common than what is depicted on the news or via social media. I’m a “glass-more-than-half-full” type of person and I wholeheartedly believe people are entitled to their own opinions and, given an opportunity to discuss those opinions, I can find some commonality with them.  I do not believe that I am in the minority in my thinking. A Pew Research study conducted in 2023 found that only 4% of U.S. adults believe the political system is functioning well or very well, which means an overwhelming 96% of those polled had an unfavorable opinion of American politics. Not surprisingly, the number of Americans that consider themselves to be politically independent is on the rise (45%, news.gallop.com).  

Other things the majority of Americans agree on is that teachers should be paid more (73%, yougov.com); Congress should enact laws to lower healthcare costs (91%, familiesusa.org); corporations have too much influence in politics (76 – 83%, americans-agree.org); and social security should be strengthened (79%, nationwidefinancial.com).

The overwhelming sense that Americans are becoming malcontent is not a result of divisive opinions, but rather the way we communicate those opinions. As we celebrate America’s 250^th birthday, may we all embrace the words of Abraham Lincoln who wrote in a letter to Henry L. Pierce and others on April 6, 1859, “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.”

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Michael Faraday was born in 1791 just outside London, England.  Michael’s father, a blacksmith who was often too ill to work steadily, could hardly afford to feed himself, his wife, and Michael and his three siblings.  He could certainly not afford to send his children to school.  Up until he was a teenager, Michael could only perform rudimentary reading, writing, and math, basic skills he learned at his church’s Sunday school.  When Michael was 14, his father arranged a seven-year apprenticeship for him under George Riebau, a bookbinder.  One of the perks of the job was that George allowed Michael to read any of the books they worked on.  Michael read books on a variety of subjects but became passionate about science.  Michael’s desire to learn impressed George as well as his customers.  One customer gave Michael tickets to attend four lectures by Humphry Davy, professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution.  Michael took copious notes and bound them in book form.  When Michael’s apprenticeship with the bookbinder ended, 22-year-old Michael asked Humphry for a job and provided his bound notes.  Humphry was taken aback by Michael’s interest, understanding, and determination, and hired Michael to be his assistant at the Royal Institute.  For the next 18 months, Michael accompanied Humphry on a tour of scientific institutions in Europe where he met noted scientists including André-Marie Ampère (for whom the ampere or amp is named) and Alessandro Volta (for whom the volt is named).  

In 1820, Michael had mastered chemistry to the point that he was developing his own theoretical views and ways to test his theories.  When Humphry retired, Michael replaced him as professor of chemistry at the Royal Institute.  While a professor, Michael became the first chemist to liquefy a “permanent” gas, one which the scientific community believed was incapable of liquification.  He discovered benzene, a colorless and highly flammable gas with a sweet smell which is partially responsible for the odor of gasoline.  His experiments with chemistry combined with electricity transformed electricity from a curiosity to a useful technology and led to him being called the father of electrochemistry and electromagnetism.  Among his many inventions were the electric motor, the electric generator, electric transformers, and a container for holding hydrogen.      

In 1824, Michael was performing experiments with hydrogen to understand its properties.  He experimented with several different containers to determine the best vessel for holding hydrogen.  In one experiment, Michael cut out two pieces of raw, tacky rubber into circles, rubbed flour on the center of the two pieces to prevent it from sticking, and pressed the edges of the rubber together.  The edges of the raw rubber sealed to itself automatically.  The scientific community was so enthralled with Michael’s new container that in the following year, 1825, rubber manufacturer Thomas Hancock began producing do-it-yourself rubber hydrogen container kits for scientists.  Rubber manufacturers eventually mass-produced and marketed these containers to the public.  Each of us has probably owned a modernized version of Michael’s hydrogen container.  Rather than hydrogen, we fill ours with helium.  In that chemistry lab, Michael Faraday invented what we now know as the toy rubber balloon.  Can you imagine a world without Michael Faraday’s hydrogen containers?  

Sources:

1.     “The Genius of Michael Faraday,” American Association fo rthte Advancement of Science, September 11, 2012, accessed June 14, 2026, https://www.aaas.org/membership/scientia/genius-michael-faraday.

2.     “Balloons,” Science World, accessed June 14, 2026, https://www.scienceworld.ca/resource/balloons/.

3.     Dmitriy Vaysman, “A Brief History of Party Balloons,” Balloon Lab, January 24, 2024, accessed June 14, 2026, https://balloonlabusa.com/a-brief-history-of-party-balloons/. 

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B

John Raymond Luneau
January 26, 1946 – June 19, 2026
Service: Monday, June 29, 2026, 10:30am at Hixson Brothers Funeral Home, Marksville.

Karen Chesne Durrett
June 25, 1957 — June 17, 2026
Service: Thursday, June 25, 2026, 11:30am at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Moreauville.

Pauline Frances Mire
November 8, 1940 — June 14, 2026
Service: Friday, June 26, 2026, 5:30pm at Escude Funeral Home, Cottonport.

Betty Lemoine Gremillion
November 14, 1943 — June 13, 2026
Service: Friday, June 26, 2026, 11am at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Moreauville.

Faye Claire Reason
September 11, 1951 — June 10, 2026
Service: Thursday, July 2, 2026, 11am at Escude Funeral Home, Mansura.

Avoyelles Online News publishes paid obituaries – unlimited words and a photo, as well as unlimited access.

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EARLY VOTING SUSPENDED IN AVOYELLES PARISH 

BATON ROUGE, La. — Secretary of State Nancy Landry has announced that Governor Jeff Landry has issued an executive order suspending early voting today, Thursday, June 18, in Avoyelles Parish for the June 27 election due to severe flooding associated with Tropical Storm Arthur. 

Early voting in Cameron Parish also remains suspended today under a separate executive order issued yesterday.

Early voting in all other parishes will proceed as scheduled for the rest of the day. Polls statewide will be closed tomorrow, Friday, June 19, in observance of the Juneteenth holiday, and will reopen on Saturday, June 20, for the final day of early voting.

Voters are encouraged to stay informed for any additional weather advisories, updates, or office closures. 

Candidates or voters with questions regarding these changes may call the Elections Hotline at 800-883-2805.

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Cleco restores power to 83 percent of customers impacted by Arthur

Some customers will be without power overnight

PINEVILLE, La. – June 18, 2026 (6 p.m.) – As of 6 p.m. today, Cleco has restored power to 83% of the 12,647 customers who lost power during Tropical Storm Arthur.

“We’ve made significant progress, but some customers in Bunkie, Mansura and Slidell will be without power overnight,” said Clint Robichaux, director of distribution operations and reliability. “Crews are removing downed trees, broken poles and downed power lines.  However, the constant rain and flooded roadways have made it difficult to access certain areas and complete the necessary repairs.  They will continue working throughout the evening where conditions are safe to do so.”

Avoyelles and St. Tammany remain the hardest hit parishes in Cleco’s service area.  According to the National Weather Service, Avoyelles Parish received between 20 and 29 inches of rain from midnight to 3 p.m. 

Power outages as of 6 p.m.

Allen Parish	1
Avoyelles Parish	1,163
Beauregard Parish	1
Evangeline Parish	1
Iberia Parish	1
Rapides Parish	2
St. Martin Parish	3
St. Tammany Parish	1,034

ORIGINAL

Power restored to over 8,500 customers

Tropical Storm Arthur continues to move across Cleco’s service territory, bringing significant rainfall that has caused severe flooding in multiple parishes.

In total, 12,647 customers lost power due to the storm, and Cleco has restored power to 8,546 of the impacted customers.

“The hardest hit parishes are Avoyelles and St. Tammany,” said Clint Robichaux, director of distribution operations and reliability. “Cleco crews are assessing damage and restoring power where conditions allow. Some of the towns we serve in Avoyelles are experiencing significant flooding. In some areas, restoration efforts cannot begin until the floodwaters recede.”   

Cleco crews have reported damaged poles, crossarms and downed power lines due to high winds, lightning and flooding.

“Crews in areas that were not impacted by the storm have been deployed to assist with restoration in the hardest-hit areas,” said Robichaux. “It will be all-hands-on-deck until power is restored to all our customers.”

Power outages as of 3 p.m.

Allen Parish	10
Avoyelles Parish	1,533
Beauregard Parish	1
Rapides Parish	4
St. Landry Parish	3
St. Martin Parish	1
St. Tammany Parish	2,531
Washington Parish	5

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