Lafourche declares state of emergency

Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph declared a state of emergency Tuesday for the parish in anticipation of potential flood risks that hinge on the opening of the Morganza Spillway.

Randolph said the parish is monitoring the situation and that she hopes a more detailed flood projection map would be released soon. She asked the public to be aware of the risks and keep informed with developments.

“I think what we’ve heard is the worst-case scenario in each area,” Randolph told the parish council Tuesday night. “That’s a good way to prepare. You prepare for the worst and hope that [the water] will have a way of trickling out into abandoned areas, into non-developed areas.”

The parish president said the declaration was not meant to cause alarm and was the next step in the parish’s diligence in preparing for floodwaters. She said the parish is contemplating evacuation plans, but nothing will be determined until more is known.

“We are certainly not going to let it get to a level that we can’t manage,” she said. “It’s a circumstance that we have not experienced, so we will continue to monitor it very closely.

“None of that is necessary right now, but the governor is saying there needs to be some thought of that, in particularly vulnerable areas.”

The state of emergency declaration came in response to maps released this past weekend by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The color-coded map indicates that parts of Lafourche Parish could have between 5 and 10 feet of water inundation and portrays the eastern banks of Bayou Lafourche to be in a 0- to 5-foot zone.

North Lafourche Levee District Executive Director Dwayne Bourgeois, after meeting with the corps officials who designed the map, called the dissemination of the maps correct but inaccurate.

“[Newspaper] articles say that areas west of Mathews and west of Larose could see 5 or 10 feet, according to the maps,” Bourgeois said Wednesday. “That is correct. It’s not accurate, because the corps didn’t know anything about our levees in this area.”

Bourgeois met with the corps officials, a hydrologist and geographic information system engineers, on Tuesday. The meeting, Bourgeois said, gave him a sense of cautious optimism.

When designing the map, corps officials started with the Atchafalaya River in St. Mary Parish and worked east in determining water surface elevation levels. Along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW), the corps assumed a 5-foot water elevation near Morgan City and tabbed it at 3 feet near both Houma and Larose, Bourgeois said.

From there, the corps used the state LIDAR system to determine land surface elevations, and without taking ring levee and pump systems in the lower-lying areas of west Lafourche, combined the assumed water elevations with the believed land height.

“They didn’t want this map to be too precise, so anything that yielded a result between 0 and 5 [feet], they called it one thing (purple), and if something yielded a result between 5 and 10, they called it another (blue),” Bourgeois said. “They weren’t looking for people to be as close to these maps as people ultimately got.”

Bourgeois said he left the meeting cautiously optimistic. “As long as things don’t get out of hand and they maintain control and they do it to 50 percent or less, I think we’ll have some water, we’ll have some high water against levees and we’ll be able to combat it from getting to any populated areas,” he said.

The levee director refrained from placing blame on the corps but did say he did not expect to see the release of updated maps. “These maps caused so much concern and conflict and everything else, I’m not even sure they’re going to release another map in the near future.

“I think there was a lot of uncertainty in their production of this map, not only including not knowing about levees and things like that, but kind of a broad-based, cover-your-butt kind of approach. Considering the little amount of time they had to produce it, I think it’s fair enough.”

The Department of Public Works is working at capacity to fill sand bags, which would be made available to the public when the parish determines what areas are most susceptible to flood, Randolph said.

If the Morganza Spillway were opened to 50 percent of its capacity, as it has been suggested, water would gush through at a rate of 300,000 cubic feet per second as it is diverted into the Atchafalaya River.

From there, it would flow through outlets, specifically the Wax Lake Outlet and Atchafalaya Basin before it reaches the GIWW. It is the water that reaches the Intracoastal Canal that would present the biggest threat to Lafourche.

South Lafourche Levee District General Manager Windell Curole said if the water elevation in the GIWW were heightened by 1.5 feet, it would cause higher elevations on Bayou Lafourche.

“The higher the Intracoastal is, the higher the water is farther up the bayou,” Curole said. “You add rainfall to that, and then you start having some problems.

“But we think, unless there is extreme south winds holding up tidal water or heavy local rainfall, that typically shouldn’t be too much of a problem in our area. In the Larose area, Lafourche, we think a foot and a half is not going to cause major problems.”

Curole said the floodgate in Larose would likely be closed, but could not foresee any other major impacts to the surrounding area.

Councilman Rodney Doucet suggested the parish speak with the corps about sinking a barge in Bayou Lafourche to prevent elevated water from threatening Mathews and Lockport. Randolph said it was something that could be discussed.

Bourgeois said he is monitoring the situation in Thibodaux, but unless water levels eclipse five feet, the area should be safe.

“We do have, in the northwest Thibodaux area the Leighton Morvant and Little Al Pump Station areas, which are areas that are exposed to high water in the Atchafalaya every time the Atchafalaya gets high,” Bourgeois said. “Most of the levee elevations in that area are over 5 foot. Some are considerably over 5 foot.”

Residents, homes and land inside the Larose-to-Golden Meadow levee system would not be impacted.

Through backwater flooding and Louisiana waterways, the Mississippi River excess would flow from west to east, beginning in St. Mary Parish. Lafourche would be the easternmost parish impacted, but to what extent is unknown.

“It will depend on so many different things, so many different variables that can occur,” Randolph said.

As of Wednesday, the federal government had yet to approve any reimbursable assistance for the impacted parishes, and any money that Lafourche spends would be parish funds.

After the meeting, Randolph deflected a question about funding concerns and said the focus needs to be on St. Mary and Terrebonne parishes.

“Whatever we do for them will minimize what happens to us,” she said.

“We’re still a long ways away,” Curole said. “Some things can change, positively or negatively, and at this time we need to pay attention. We have some time to look at this thing. The key thing is to stay up to date with what the situation is.”