Bill provides Morganza authorization for a third time
April 10, 2013
Lafourche extension doesn’t ease long-term concern
April 10, 2013
Terrebonne levee board officials say they are ready to move ahead with an unprecedented protection system for the parish, now that taxpayers have given a green light to their Morganza-to-the-Gulf project.
The system of levees and gates will be built incrementally, replacing some flood protection elements more suited to normal storm issues rather than the surge that a hurricane raises.
Officials note that the progress is vital because places that have never flooded before are more vulnerable due to land subsidence and other issues. They are confident – buttressed by the taxpayer approval of a $100 million bond issue to pay for it all – that Terrebonne voters realize the risks are not limited to low-lying bayou communities.
In those places where putting up with rising water has become a way of life over many decades, there is confidence among many of the people as well that this time, perhaps, everyone will be safer.
“I think so, I think we are going to be protected,” said Rusty LeCompte, an owner of the NAPA Auto Parts store on La. 56 in Chauvin. Built on a ridge, the store has not experienced the flooding many of its neighbors have suffered on nearby stretches of the highway.
Nonetheless Rusty and his son, Drew, know the potential exists. The Morganza hurricane protection system, Drew said, makes for some extra confidence.
“I think they are helping us out down here,” said Drew LeCompte. “Once they, complete the Morganza down here the other levee will be a secondary drainage levee. I am concerned that the marsh area outside the Morganza is going to erode.”
Levee experts as well as the people they protect are keenly aware of how fickle water can be when it flexes muscle.
Among the concerns as the Morganza system progresses will be the effect on communities to the north, like Gibson. The ecosystem there is largely related to the fortunes and whims of the Atchafalaya River rather than Gulf storm surges. But the potential for trouble if a hurricane moves in is still recognized and felt.
In Chauvin, interviews with residents reveal a level of comfort with the Morganza project, a feeling that something is being accomplished. While residents in the bayou communities may have faith in the efforts of government, however, they have far less in the stability of nature.
“You can put a 90 foot levee and if that water wants to come in, it is coming in,” said Josh Dupre of Houma, a tug boat worker.
He and other friends were visiting at a child’s birthday party in Chauvin just down La. 56 from the Piggly Wiggly supermarket, where the first word of a hurricane threat sends potted meat flying off the shelves, on a highway that has been the road for many an exodus.
Kerry Van Buren, whose house is across the highway from Bayou Little Caillou, shrugged as he watched his daughter, Maykayla, romp with friends who came to celebrate her 3rd birthday.
Yes, he has faith in the new system that will be built to protect his family. But in the end, he said, nature makes its own decisions.
“I just go with the flow,” he said.
Kerry VanBuren boils crawfish at his daughter’s birthday party in Chauvin. He and his guests, while grateful that there is a new levee system thanks to a new sales tax, take a fatalistic approach toward flooding, saying water will do what it wishes to do.
