Houma riding instructor back in the saddle again
May 23, 2011
Troy Allemand
May 25, 2011
“I said last week, that somebody needs to explain the difference,” said Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District Executive Director Reggie Dupre when asked about the link between closely watched activity at the Morganza Spillway and the widely known Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane protection project. “So, you’ve asked a critical question.”
Tri-parish residents have braced for what experts warn could be a flood matching that historic event of 1927. People, who were here to remember, mark a devastating flood in 1973, to compare what might happen if swollen waters from the Mississippi River are released into the Atchafalaya River.
Those new to southern Louisiana may seem confused as talk of the Morganza levee and floodgate system, just south of Houma and reaching across Terrebonne Parish and into Lafourche Parish, is compared by name to the Morganza Spillway, 126 miles to the north.
Morganza to the Gulf is recognized as a hurricane flood protection system of levee structures and floodgates, designed to protect not only residents and developed real estate, but also fragile marshlands from tidal storm surges. In its current development it reaches from Bayou Dularge in the western part of Terrebonne Parish and twists its way to the east and Bayou Lafourche in Lafourche Parish.
The Morganza Spillway is a flood release structure at river mile marker 280 on the west bank of the Mississippi River, near the town of Morganza. During major flooding the spillway can be used to relieve the Mississippi River by releasing water into the Atchafalaya River, which in turn flows to the Atchafalaya Basin on the border of Terrebonne and St. Mary parishes.
Construction of the spillway began in the late 1930s and was completed in 1954. The only time the gates were opened was during the flood of 1973, which proved devastating to many communities along the Atchafalaya River and connecting bayous.
According to Dupre, the original Morganza project included a triangle-shaped area that reached from the Gulf of Mexico along the Atchafalaya River to the west and Bayou Lafourche to the east, and met at Morganza.
“That was back in the early 1990s,” Dupre said. “The whole triangle between the two ridges was the original 1992 [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers] Morganza-to-the-Gulf study. It included not only flood protection, but other things such as environmental protection. It was a complete overview.”
Dupre explained that like many government projects, changes in administrations, Congressional power, policies, priorities and price tags prompted adjustments to the Morganza project. What ultimately came out of it was a proposed hurricane protection plan for Terrebonne Parish.
“The name Morganza to the Gulf was never changed because that was the original corps name,” Dupre said. “Quite frankly, we never changed the name. The average citizen does not know the difference.”
Soldiers from the Louisiana National Guard’s 225th Engineer Brigade and 256th Infantry Brigade erect barriers of sand-filled HESCO baskets along the river to help prevent water from washing ashore and ruining homes in Amelia. HOWARD J. CASTAY JR.
