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July 11, 2018
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July 11, 2018
Louisiana has had some really bad luck with hurricanes in the past several years with several storms either making landfall on our soil or getting close enough to douse the mostly eroded coast with powerful storm surges.
But over the past several years, one small local community has been immune to the hurricane problems that others in the state have faced – a success story which seems highly unlikely because it’s a stretch of land that sits right on the coast and should be very prone to damage from storms.
That’s South Lafourche.
The story for their success in storm protection? Years and years of work to build a man-made dirt levee system which wraps around the community in a circle and which provides protection from storms which might come our way.
It’s known as the ring levee and over the years, it’s evolved from a small earthen wall to a massive leader in storm protection – a levee which now sits close to 20 feet high at its highest reaches and which carries a consistent height above 16 feet on the southern end near Golden Meadow and 12 or more feet on its northern side toward Larose.
The levee has been partially funded by government at times, but predominantly also by the people of Lafourche, who agreed to tax themselves one cent, which goes to maintenance and elevation of the massive structure, which can now be seen from space because of its girth.
The system has been successful. The South Lafourche community is the only coastal area in the entire state of Louisiana to not take on a drop of storm surge from 2004-2012, according to an investigative report done on Fox 8 by John Snell.
South Lafourche Levee District General Manager Windell Curole said he and his team are grateful for that, adding that they take pride in giving peace of mind to citizens during hurricane season.
“When a storm comes this way, a lot of places say, ‘Well, you know, we have to be lucky to get by this without major flooding,” Curole said. “We take pride in being somewhat in the other side of the argument. We’ve gotten to where we need to be unlucky to flood. We have to have the right storm hit at the right angle going the right speed at the right time. It’s amazing to think how far this has come and how much dirt has been moved; it’s really a great thing. Our goal has been from the beginning – we just want to protect our people’s homes and businesses. We’re constantly at work trying to do more so that we can stay protected because we want our system as good as it can be.”
The process of turning the Lafourche levee from an idea into an actual giant earthen detriment to storm surge was a long, steady process – one which is still ongoing at present. The process dates back to the 1960s when local leaders, business people and concerned citizens of Lafourche joined together in an effort to boost storm protection in the area.
Before the ring levee, lower Lafourche had next to no storm protection and the area flooded badly for several storms. The group started the parish’s levee board in 1968 and the first dirt started to be piled onto the ring levee in 1976 – now more than 40 years ago.
And the work hasn’t ever stopped since.
Curole started with the levee board in the early 1980s and a storm which occurred around that time showed that the fruits of the parish’s labors were paying off.
Before the ring levee, Lafourche Parish had a Police Jury levee which was up to five feet high, which protected the area from rain events, but which was too low to stop most storm surges.
During Hurricane Juan in 1985, $35 million in damage was done to Lafourche and all of the old levee structures were overtopped. The ring levee project, which was still heavily under construction at that time was not overtopped, which helped alleviate the problems for the area.
“That was sort-of an eye-opener,” Curole said. “I think it showed people that we needed this done and also that what we were doing was working.”
Since Hurricane Juan, work has continued to be ongoing and the levee has continued to grow – one pile of dirt atop the other at a time.
In 1992, the area withstood Hurricane Andrew.
In more recent history and as the levee became fully circled in and has massively grown in height, it’s also endured Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike – all without surge overtopping the system.
As each day goes by, more and more work is done on the levee – a plan which isn’t going to change for the foreseeable future.
The current system covers more than 48 miles of land and 439,000 acres. Construction in recent months in Larose will allow for the northern end of the levee to more easily be enclosed during a storm event. The southern end begins at the floodgates in Golden Meadow.
“Lafourche’s system has been a model we’ve all wanted to follow,” said Reggie Dupre, the executive director of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District. “The work that they’ve done there is impressive.”
But even Curole knows it’s not fool proof.
He said he warns citizens every chance he gets that though the levee is “undefeated” in recent storms, the “perfect storm” could still overtop it and cause huge problems for the area.
Curole said the worst-case scenario is a major hurricane which made landfall just to the west of Lafourche, while moving at a slow pace. But he also admits that there’s also a comfort in knowing that the area has a smaller bulls-eye on it than other places around the state.
“It’s a chess match,” Curole said. “The name of the game is to be able to hold on long enough to be safe until the wind changes direction and the water retreats. Every piece of dirt helps. Every inch helps. Sometimes the money we’d like isn’t present. But we push forward and do what we can at all times because every little bit helps – especially when it comes to protecting lives and the people in this area.” •
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