14-year-old Lao among THS’s Class of 2011
May 17, 2011Thursday, May 19
May 19, 2011The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ top man in Louisiana wants Morgan City residents to know that he is “here to flood fight, together, arm in arm.”
Speaking to a jammed Morgan City High School gymnasium, Col. Edward Fleming said he is not flooding Morgan City and others to save New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
“I’m not flooding you at the cost of someone else, that is not true,” he said. “It’s absolutely not the case.
“It’s simply this, it’s not a good thing to have an uncontrolled flow of water. And I need to correct that.”
Fleming also said water is always over the Morganza Spillway, simply because of how it is made.
First, “It’s below La. Highway 1,” he said.
Then, the gate comes up to an elevation of 60 feet, and the highway is above it at 63 feet.
“What do you think happens between 60 and 63 feet, if the water gets to 61 feet?” Fleming asked. “It comes over, and that’s what’s been going on for a while now, while the spillway has been closed.
“My team is here on the ground with you. It may be only a half dozen of them, but there are 1,500 more in New Orleans, ready to bring you HESCO, sand bags, sheet piling, even pumps,” he said.
However, Fleming quickly corrected himself and said the proper procedures must be followed for the process to succeed.
“If the city needs something, they need to go to the parish. If the parish needs something, they need to go to the state, and if they state needs something, they need to go to the corps and we will provide it. This is not a free for all.”
On evacuations, Fleming said it is his hope and prayer those will not happen in Morgan City or other parts of the Tri-parish area.
“But there will be parts of Louisiana that will need to be evacuated,” he said. “And if you have not moved before, you don’t understand the feeling.
“I’ve been in the corps for 22 years, and I have moved 14 times. My daughter is in the ninth grade and she has been to six different schools. All I can tell you is that each time I moved, I realized the important things in life are my wife and my kid, because the moving truck could have toppled over, or fell off a road or a cliff, and my stuff would have been gone.”
