T’bonne vows to clean waterways

Forty-two boats sunk in several Terrebonne Parish bayous by hurricanes Katrina and Rita will be raised by the U.S. Coast Guard beginning sometime in May, said Jack Gardner, Terrebonne Parish Geographic Information System director.

Funded entirely by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the project will sweep derelict vessels from bayous Terrebonne, Grand Caillou, Petit Caillou and Dularge.

Workers will also remove marine debris and trees in bayous Terrebonne and Petit Caillou as part of the project. Large amounts of debris driven there by Katrina and Rita still remain in parish bayous, Gardner said.

In a separate program that will be reimbursed 90 percent by FEMA, Terrebonne Parish will hire a contractor beginning in June or July to raise 20 vessels and a travel trailer sunk in parish waterways by hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

The bayous that will be cleaned in that program have not been identified, Gardner said. The parish administration is going to ask the Terrebonne Parish Council for the remaining 10 percent of the cost, he said.

In addition, the parish’s Department of Planning and Zoning has received a $250,000 grant to raise vessels in parish waterways not sunk by Katrina, Rita, Gustav or Ike. Gardner said the parish cannot use any of the $250,000 grant to pay the 10 percent match for the Gustav/Ike boat-clearing program.

Officials from the Coast Guard, FEMA and Terrebonne Parish fanned out across Terrebonne’s bayous in June to identify the Katrina/Rita vessels that would be raised, and in October to identify boats sunk by Gustav and Ike.

Several criteria were used to determine whether a boat had been sunk by the hurricanes, including fading paint and stickers found on the vessels.

Gardner said raising the boats is expensive. “After Katrina and Rita, a political uproar was caused when FEMA announced millions of dollars for Mississippi and Alabama, but only a few million for Louisiana,” he said.

The Coast Guard began working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers following the hurricanes to remove some vessels from parish waterways.

However, the new effort funded by FEMA is much broader in scope, said Coast Guard spokesman Bob Travis in December 2007, when plans for the project were first announced.

“We’ve got a different mission assignment from FEMA,” he said. “It’s more expensive and covers new waterways. We have a wider definition of what we can work on.”

Travis also said local governments in coastal parishes can raise derelict vessels cost-effectively.

“The parishes have the appropriate equipment, knowledge and local guys,” he said.

Former Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter estimated the number of local sunken vessels at 200.

Beginning next month, the U.S. Coast Guard will begin retrieving 42 boats sunk in several Terrebonne Parish bayous by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is funding the sweep. * Photo courtesy of Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government