Lafourche Ring Levee
July 11, 2018
Protecting You and Yours
July 11, 2018
Keeping track of gate closures just became easier for mariners and other interested parties in Terrebonne Parish, thanks to a new web-based application that officials say offers a new level of information and ways to receive it.
The app can be reached through your phone, tablet or computer at http://www.tlcd.org/mobile/.
The most important step once there, officials said, is to make sure and register for the related text alerts.
Prior to the new system a phone-based app, said Angela Rains of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District, was employed and in many respects worked well. But the company that developed it had difficulty keeping up with telephone system operating changes and finally shut down. That decision left the levee system high and dry.
Knowing when closures are pending for various floodgates is vital for mariners, who must make plans to come in shore for a storm or other event that results in high water, or for that matter when they can leave.
When the app shut down, Rains didn’t know what to do.
“There I was in the beginning of hurricane season and I was frantic without anything,” Rains said. “They hired a team out of New Orleans to design a web-based application.”
Registration for the app can be completed online by clicking on the lower right-hand side of your screen and placing information on the dialogue box.
Once registered you can receive text updates of when closures are pending, when they have occurred and when they area opened again.
The TLCSD site also contains tidal levels for key areas and other data that mariners might find of use. The cost for this site was about $50,000.
“This web-based system is fantastic, and I think it is a great improvement,” said levee district director Reggie Dupre, who, like Rains, was flabbergasted when the original application shut down. “Sometimes when it seems to be a bad day we are ending up with a better product because the general public will have more access than they had before. We hope it will help give a better understanding for people of how the system works.” •
