Tuesday, May 10
May 10, 2011Thursday, May 12
May 12, 2011Morgan City is now in its second week of preparations to combat flooding, which is forecast to threaten the area.
News of the pending partial opening of the Morganza Spillway forced Mayor Tim Matte and the City Council early last week, to declare a State of Emergency for the city.
The mayor said the declaration is, for the most part, a formality with FEMA, to position the city and its residents eligible for consideration to receive federal aid and resources.
The National Weather Service is predicting the Atchafalaya River to crest at 9.5 feet in Morgan City, on Monday, May 23.
But once the Morganza Spillway opens, experts say that number could rise to as high as 12 feet, maybe more. Those predictions have Matte troubled.
“Let me say that first, we’re not expecting any of our 15 miles of levee to breach,” he said. “What we’re doing is shoring up areas in our city that need immediate attention. We’re preparing the best that we can.
“We’re concerned about backwater in Lake Palourde from the Atchafalaya. We’re being very precautious. A nine and a half crest is a bad situation and so forth. But if we have a high tide and a strong southern wind, than we have an extra foot and a half of water in the lake to deal with, and that’s a common situation that has happened many times.”
To prepare for the river crest, as well as for potential backwater flooding, Matte has already started the process of closing the 27 flood gates that keep the Atchafalaya away from Morgan City. He expects to close all of the cities floodgates once the river measures nine feet, although he said that when the city’s river gage measures near seven feet, river water begins to spill and creep along the floodwalls in some areas.
However, should the crest rise higher than nine or 10 feet, this could put pressure on the city’s levees behind the Elliot and Auburn subdivisions, along David Drive, and along Justa Street in the Lakeside Subdivision where some levees are less than eight feet.
As a hopeful big fix, Matte said he ordered and received 10,500 feet of large sand containers (Hesco Baskets), for increasing the height of the backwater levees.
Carl Kraemer, director of emergency preparedness for the city, said the U.S. National Guard will assist his staff and other city personnel, in raising the levees.
Kramer said sand and sand bags will eventually be made available for city residents, however, “the backwater levee system must be shored to protect this community. Therefore, please respect the sand locations at this time for levee purposes. Once this task is completed, sand will be made available for individual use.”
The last time the State opened the Morganza Spillway was in 1973. At that time, Morgan City had less than a 10-foot floodwall where it is 22 feet today.
And although water topped the old floodwall, it did not come over. Also, none of the city’s levees breeched.
Ironically however, the city had water, due to 22 inches of rain that had fallen over a two-day period, Councilman Larry Bergeron said.
“And that’s another factor to consider,” he said. “None of the Corps projects factor in any amount of rain water.”
Seth Thomas, the city’s recreation director, said his mother lives in Lakeside, and in 1973, that subdivision flooded, but no water entered his mother’s home.
Matte however, remembers about an inch of water in his father’s home, inside his bedroom in the Elliot Subdivision.
But Tammy Rodriguez, a former Morgan City resident, said in 1973, her mother had about two and a half feet of water in her home in the Wyndotte Subdivision, which is located on the other side of La. Highway 182, from the Lakeside Subdivision area.
In short, Matte said “the rate and flow of the river will dictate how the Atchafalaya will act.”
“Just when anticipating a hurricane, I ask our citizens to prepare, and that may or may not include evacuation,” he said. “The corps has said they have not seen levels like this in the river since the great flood of 1927.
“Karl has rode the levees looking for problem areas, and with the dry weather we have had, he has noted that the levees are in good shape, so hopefully they are in the position to perform, like they need to perform. We’ve got more pumps than 1973, as well.”
