Houma residents declare, ‘We Have Enough Water’

We Have Enough Water (WHEW), a new non-profit organization started in Houma in June, was formed to support flood protection efforts in Terrebonne Parish.

However, the group will focus on opposing the cutting of a boat slip as part of the development of the Hollygrove subdivision, said executive board chairman and Barrios resident Gerald Giroir.

Hollygrove, developed by South Hollywood Properties No. 1, will be built near the Barrios, Mulberry and Lamar subdivisions, whose residents comprise WHEW.

Earlier this year, the Houma-Terrebonne Regional Planning Commission recommended against allowing the 3,000-foot slip to be built, but the Terrebonne Parish Council in May voted to reject the commission’s recommendation.

Further development of the slip still requires approval from the commission and the parish council.

Several subdivision residents told the parish council they feared the 150-foot-wide slip could act as a conduit for storm surges. But Regional Planning Commission member Jim Erny told the council many of those fears are unfounded.

“The focus of our attention will be the slip, but there is other flooding in homes because of not having properly engineered subdivisions,” Giroir said. “But right now, the slip is our most immediate concern.”

Giroir presented the parish council a list of several hundred subdivision residents opposed to the cutting of the slip.

He considers those names to be de facto members of WHEW, he said.

“We’re not a radical group,” Giroir said. “We’re all taxpaying. Most are elderly, living on Social Security. They worked all their lives to save their property. It is an added threat to property and lives.”

Another concern for residents is the Concorde Road levee.

Giroir said the vinyl retaining wall, built to protect the Barrios subdivision, has sunk and is not strong enough to handle a storm surge. “We need to focus on it,” he said “It’s been neglected.”

According to Giroir, the proposed Hollygrove subdivision is 188 acres and will contain 11 different residential lots.

He said other plans showed 48 lots proposed for the same property.

Slips were cut to the west of the Mulberry subdivision before Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Giroir added.

“We’re not going to focus on that one issue,” he said about the boat slip in Hollygrove. “We had people testify at council meetings who are getting water in homes. We want to address those issues also. It’s the same: development without practical data.”

Giroir said WHEW will oppose further development of the slip at Regional Planning Commision meetings.

“We’re not against development of property,” he said, “but they could do it without building the slip.”