The top stories making headlines over past year

1. BP oil spill

On April 20, 2010, a Deepwater Horizon oil rig under lease by BP PLC blew out, became engulfed in flames and exploded. Eleven workers aboard the rig were killed, and more than 150 million gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico and began to matriculate towards the coastal states. The rig was drilling nearly one mile beneath the surface, and the disaster’s impact on south Louisiana was felt at an equivalent depth. The commercial fishing industry was halted with the closure of fishing areas; some fisherman participated in the clean-up process through BP’s Vessels of Opportunity program while others were left longing to go back to work and earn money. Kenneth Feinberg was put in charge of administering BP’s $20 billion claim fund to businesses and families financially impacted by the spill, and he promised it would be handled quickly. But he was criticized early and often for not meeting the demands quickly enough. The Department of the Interior imposed a moratorium on offshore drilling, and two months after the ban was lifted, oil executives still argue the moratorium remains through the stringent and expensive standards drilling companies are trying and failing to meet in the opaque permitting process that threatens the welfare of the Tri-parishes.

2. Election Results

When 3rd Congressional District incumbent Charlie Melancon announced his intentions to run against David Vitter for a seat in the Senate, a cavalcade of negative campaigning ensued in both the Senate and House races. Vitter, a Republican, ran a controversial commercial that charged Melancon with inviting illegal immigrants across the border and retained his seat for a second term after voters were subjected to reminders of his alleged sordid dealings with a Washington prostitute. As for Melancon’s vacated seat, New Iberia lawyer Jeff Landry defeated Democrat Ravi Sangisetty with 64 percent of the vote after a bitter, attack-laden campaign with Hunt Downer in the primary election. With the news that Louisiana is set to lose a Congressional seat, Landry will have to fight for his political career as a rookie. In Thibodaux, Tommy Eschete supplanted three-term mayor Charles Caillouet.

3. St. Matthew’s Fire

When St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church burned down on Nov. 11, it grabbed the attention of the entire region. The 115-year-old cypress structure, chartered in 1855 and listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, served as a place of worship, but it also offered a glimpse into the past. No present-day Houma resident was alive when the church was refurbished in 1892. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but parishioners intend to rebuild. “Over 100 years ago our fore bearers created that amazing space and they gave it to us,” Rev. Craig Dalferes said in November. “Now it is our turn to create.”

4. Saintsmania

Who Dat? In 2010, New Orleans Saints fans finally got the answer they were looking for n nobody. The Tri-parish area was euphoric in the weeks leading up to n and the months following n the Saints’ 31-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. Houma eye doctor A.J. de la Houssaye wore a wedding dress as an ode to the late Buddy Diliberto. Academy Sports opened at midnight after the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl to sell commemorative apparel. Tattoo parlors and car detail shops were bustling with people demanding logos on their bodies and cars to remember the occasion. And southeastern Louisiana politicians stood their ground in a public relations battle against the NFL over who held the trademark to “Who Dat?” and eventually outlasted the backpedaling billion-dollar corporation.

5. Learning to cope with cuts

With Louisiana’s financial problems, the education sector faced the brunt of the necessary budget cuts. Nicholls State University served as a local peg to the state dilemma and was forced to eliminate 117 full-time positions, eight degree programs and four concentrations and has since appealed to the governor’s office and state legislature for the right to charge students more money in tuition. It wasn’t just postsecondary education to be affected n Terrebonne Parish School Board eliminated 239 full-time and 65 part-time jobs, Lafourche Parish School Board eliminated 73 full- and part-time jobs and 72 support positions and St. Mary School Board cut 22 teaching and 7 paraprofessional jobs.

6. 75th Annual Shrimp and Petroleum Festival

In the aftermath of the oil spill, Gulf seafood was deemed tainted and commercial fishermen were out of work. Yet the annual festival that combines two of south Louisiana’s most recognizable qualities went on as planned with the added element of being witnessed by 83 countries around the world. In addition to celebrating its 75th anniversary, Morgan City’s Shrimp and Petroleum Festival served as an anti-moratorium platform, sent the oil industry a supportive message and “stamped awareness to the importance of oil to the Louisiana economy,” then interim Lt. Gov. Scott Angelle said in September.

7. Vandebilt High students killed in tragic accident

Houma residents frantically dialed and answered their cell phones Sunday, Sept. 26 while waiting on the results of the on-going search for four Vandebilt Catholic High School students who didn’t return home after attending a LSU football game the previous night. James “T.J.” Cantrelle III, Ian Haydel, Gabrielle Hebert and Megan Hitt were found in a canal near Bayou Blue and Coteau roads, and the news sent shockwaves through the community. The pickup truck Cantrelle drove veered off the road and jumped a guardrail into the canal. Friends were crushed; parents everywhere felt sick; and the community mourned the loss. The heart-wrenching story was the realization of a parent’s worst nightmare.

8. Boudreaux resigns/suit settled/Todd offered post

Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet announced on April 12 that Houma Chief of Police Pat Boudreaux resigned. It came on the same day the parish president announced the settlement of seven sexual harassment lawsuits involving Boudreaux and four employees of the Houma Police Department. The parish president recommended Interim Police Chief Todd Duplantis for the full-time post. However, as the parish council entertained the measure, complaints were lobbed against Duplantis. At the interim chief’s suggestion, a vote was delayed pending an investigation.

9. Floodgate permits secured

The Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District Board of Commissioners delivered the news Dec. 14 that permits for the “inter Morganza to the Gulf” project had been secured. As a segment of the Morganza-to-the-Gulf project that is still being evaluated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, construction is expected to begin in the spring on the Houma Navigational Canal floodgate, followed by the Bayou Grand Caillou floodgate, the Reach F levee system and G-1 levee development area. The $120 million inter Morganza project will be absent federal funding, with the money almost evenly split between state grants and tax collections. The levee district will bond out $45 million in sales tax.

10. Terrebonne Parish deputy killed in motorcycle accident

Capt. Timothy J. Bergeron, escorting a float in the Krewe of Titans to Southland Mall on Feb. 7, perished in a motorcycle accident when he collided with a Lincoln Continental. A father of five, Bergeron was remembered as an “exceptional officer and better friend.” Shelly Ordoyne, the driver with whom he collided, made a left turn leaving Krumbhaar Avenue after being waved on by the float driver. Bergeron was passing the float with his motorcycle lights flashing. Bergeron laid down his motorcycle and Ordoyne pulled onto the shoulder, but the two vehicles collided. Bergeron spent 25 years with the Terrebonne Parish

Sheriff’s Office.

Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon on April 21 in this file photograph. Over the coming months, Houma would serve as ground zero for the government’s BP oil spill response command center. FILE PHOTO