Ike’s floodwaters slow Gutav recovery work at Port Fourchon

Hurricane Ike’s storm surge added insult to injury at Port Fourchon last week, bringing the recovery effort there to a crawl.

According to Ted Falgoust, executive director of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission, Ike’s surge left operations at a near-standstill. The port, which is running on generator power, was still under water Monday.

The channels, which had just resumed limited boat traffic after Gustav, were closed again over the weekend to allow Ike to pass through.

The waterway has since reopened to commercial traffic only, Falgoust said.

“We don’t want any sightseeing, recreational fishing or anyone just passing through,” he said. “It’s just for commercial traffic. We are allowing camp owners to come in.”

The southern reaches of Louisiana Highway 1, which travels through Fourchon, were reopened to workers and emergency responders.

“We let the assessment team of every facility in the port in,” Falgoust said.

Despite being hit by two hurricanes in nearly two weeks time, Falgoust said Port Fourchon did not suffer much major damage. Even after Ike, he reported no major structural damage to any of the major facilities.

“The port hardly had any major damage; it was all little things,” he said. “We were lucky not to have any major infrastructure damage.”

However, that doesn’t mean Port Fourchon is in the clear. The two storms caused an estimated $20 million in damage, Falgoust said.

The jetties took the brunt of the pounding from Gustav. The eastern jetty was the most severely damaged, he said.

“Our entrance channel took on debris and that’s why we have the restrictions,” Falgoust said. “Our eastern jetty has significant damage. It was damaged during Gustav and it looks like Ike finished it off.”

Fourchon Beach remains closed until further notice because of substantial beach erosion. Only Chevron employees are allowed beyond the gate on the Fourchon Bridge until further notice.

“We have major beach erosion,” Falgoust said. “This storm (Ike) came on top of already poor beach conditions.”

Although electrical power in the area is expected to take weeks to fully restore, Falgoust said the port is functioning. Crews continue to work nonstop cleaning up Port Fourchon.

“It’ll be weeks and weeks before things are back to normal here,” he said. “We’re just lucky that none of our key facilities sustained any major damage. We have auxiliary power right now. It’s probably going to be that way for a while.”

Ike’s floodwaters slow Gutav recovery work at Port Fourchon