4-5 inches of rain fall on Morgan City area

Tri-City area mayors reported little to no flooding problems over this weekend’s downpour of rain.
According to the radar, the Tri-City area received 4 to 5 inches of rain, said Roger Erickson, warning coordination meteorologist of the National Weather Service. Up the road, Franklin and surrounding areas received between 6 to 10 inches.
Patterson did not have any flooding.
“We had some trash build up over the grates covering drainage, but I had those cleaned off,” Patterson Mayor Rodney Grogan said.
Berwick experienced minor street flooding and “everything operated the way it was supposed to,” said Berwick Mayor Louis Ratcliff.
“Everything drained really well,” Ratcliff said. “We have a lot to be thankful for compared to other places.”
Morgan City reported no major issues, but some streets flooded.
“We flooded in Lakeside a little bit but it didn’t approach any houses or anything like that,” said Morgan City Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi.
Besides Lakeside, there were other streets that stayed flooded for a few minutes. Lakeside’s flooding is caused by gravity drainage and wind, said Lee Dragna, Chairman of Morgan City Drainage District 2.
District 2 also includes Siracusaville.
The drainage department activated one of the new pumps on Sixth Street.
“Our pumpers did a fantastic job,” Dragna said. “I was very impressed with them sticking it out all day long.
“They had to pump at the station the whole time for like 20 hours. They started on Saturday night and worked up until Sunday night.”
The only flash flooding problem District 2 had, according to city personnel, was that water couldn’t get off the street and into the drain fast enough, Dragna said.
The weekend’s rainy condition caused some sugar cane to fall down in the fields.
“This is more normal,” said Herman Waguespack, senior agronomist of the American Sugar Cane League.
“If the rain just doesn’t continue to rain, we should be OK,” Waguespack said. “It’s not going to be a disaster or anything.”
There is a coastal flood warning for St. Mary Parish in effect today up to 7 p.m.

“We have one more high tide coming in this afternoon,” Erickson said.
“We’re thinking after this high tide, the winds should shift to the north for tomorrow. That way it’ll be pushing up rather than pushing in.”