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The lofty words of proud dignitaries have scattered with Gulf of Mexico breezes and the late-summer sun has dried up the champagne spilled at last week’s solemn opening ceremonies.
Now the $52 million Bubba Dove floodgate awaits its first real test, which Terrebonne Parish residents and officials hope won’t come any time soon. Even at this point, before a series of connecting levees shielding Houma and surrounding communities from storm-surge ravages are complete, officials say the floodgate will substantially increase the margin of protection. And they promise that margin will increase every year.
The official opening of the flood gate, named for Gordon E. “Bubba” Dove Jr., the late son of Rep. Gordon Dove, R-Houma, drew state, federal and local officials, included presentations from a joint Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office and Houma Police Department color guard, a ribbon cutting and bottles of champagne smashed against the structure.
The 23-year-old Dove Jr. was killed shortly before 8 a.m. March 29, 2009, when the SUV he was driving veered off of I-310 in St. Charles Parish.
“This will guarantee the long-term survivability of Terrebonne Parish,” Parish President Michel Claudet told those assembled. Seated in the front row were members of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District board of commissioners, who led development of the project through its completion.
Reggie Dupre, the levee district’s executive director, introduced speakers who made continual references to the interagency cooperation and in particular the work of the region’s congressional and state legislative delegations.
Built entirely with state and parish dollars, the floodgate structure includes a barge more than 270-feet long and 60-feet wide. Twin frames, positioned at each side of the canal, weigh a combined total of 1600 tons. The barge can be made flush with the frame once winched in position in about 45 minutes, officials said.
Nearly 2 million gallons of water will be used to sink the structure so that it totally blocks the canal.
Fifteen feet deep and 40-miles-long, the canal links the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway with the Gulf of Mexico. That makes it an ample conduit for storm surges when hurricanes arrive.
“This is the anchor, the anchor for the protection system of Terrebonne Parish and for portions of Lafourche Parish,” said Garret Graves, chair of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana and Executive Assistant to the Gov. Bobby Jindal for Coastal Activities.
Graves also praised the willingness of Terrebonne residents to tax themselves for flood protection. A sales tax passed last year has allowed bonds for continued work on the Morganza to the Gulf project, of which the floodgate is a portion.“Everybody put their shoulders behind it and we showed that we don’t have to take decades to go from start to finish.”
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La, recounted the attempts by local officials to shake loose federal dollars for the project and related flood protection.
“This project represents to my knowledge the first project in the history of the United States of America where people have been so distraught and so upset with the loss of land that they have gone past the federal government and that is a good thing,” Landrieu said, acknowledging as well the locally-built Lafourche levee system. The difference between the two projects is that the flood gate, as part of the Morganza project, was built to federal standards. The Lafourche project was built to off-put flooding from smaller storms.
“What this protects supports the entire nation,” Landrieu said.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La, noted that the Army Corps of Engineers approval of the Morganza project coupled with a continued push for federal money from himself, Landrieu and other Louisiana lawmakers, means a local community has taken an important lead role.
“Finally Washington is going to be following your lead on this,” Vitter said.
Community leaders also paid homage to the memory of Bubba Dove, while praising his father’s commitment to coastal restoration and protection.
Levee board chairman Tony Alford said the naming of the gate for a young man he counted as a friend proved fortuitous in more ways than one.
“His father and the governor have worked tirelessly to get the funding needed to build this structure,” Alford said. “And at a time of distress for all of us, a lot of us who knew the Dove family, we needed to motivate Gordy to get out there and move forward. I want to thank the board, it was a unanimous decision to name it … little did we know when we named it the Bubba Dove barge there was nobody going to stop this thing from being built, because Gordy was at every meeting, and he wanted to know who was trying to stop it, when and where.”
The protection the gate will afford Houma, Reggie Dupre said in an interview following the ceremonies, will be substantial.
Both the gate and the Bayou Grand Caillou levee, Dupre said, are at an 18-foot elevation.
Two hurricanes that affected the parish gravely, Isaav and Rita, had a storm surge of over 9 feet.
What has been learned, Dupre said, is that even with an incomplete system, the energy of a surge can be dissipated, making for lesser impact.
USGS measurements, he said, showed that the surge from Ike in 2008 unleashed 55,000 cubic feet per second of water through the HNC. Estimates are that even without a full joining of levees elsewhere in the system, Dupre said, the gate can cut that in half.
The parish will not have the benefit of maximum protection during this hurricane season, Dupre noted, but by next year additions of levees will make things stronger and more effective.
“In the short run you have a situation where if you block water in one direction you force it into another,” Dupre said, estimating that in most scenarios upper Bayou Dularge would likely take on the outflow. He said it would not likely make the scenario worse than if the floodgate and completed levees were not there at all, however.
Officials are already talking about placing portable levees at key points in Dularge communities to prepare for any of that spillover, though plans are not yet finalized.
An emotional Dove, both prior to the ceremonies and later when he spoke in public, professed the belief that his late son will serve as a protector for the parish when bad weather looms.
“He was a very caring, giving young man, I am sure he is looking down on us and God is looking down on him and his gate, and his name is going to protect the people of Terrebonne Parish,” Dove said.
Local leaders cut the ribbon on the Bubba Dove floodgate in Terrebonne Parish. The $52 million project will provide much-needed protection to Terrebonne Parish residents. The barge is 270-feet long and 60-feet wide and 1,600 tons.
