Officials look to spring as winter flood prep finishes

As work nears completion on projects to protect the area from the winter high water, St. Mary Parish officials already have their eyes on what the spring may hold.
Flood protection projects on Bayou Chene and Avoca Island should be complete this weekend and ready to keep waters from flooding up to six parishes, thanks to many hours of work by the Louisiana National Guard, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, parish officials and private contractors.
The Atchafalaya River is projected to crest near 8 feet Jan. 23, a height substantially lower than the crest forecasters originally predicted. At the beginning of last week, the forecast showed a projected crest of 9.5 feet. The Corps of Engineers’ decision not to open the Morganza Spillway also saved the area from receiving more water.
At Thursday’s St. Mary Levee District Commission meeting, Levee District President Bill Hidalgo said officials expect the river may actually rise a little above 8 feet partly due to south winds.
As of 9 a.m. today, the Atchafalaya was at 7.47 feet in Morgan City.
The 2016 winter high water is unique in that the highest water on the Atchafalaya River usually occurs in the spring. But due to communities up north getting more rain instead of snow, the water traveled downriver more quickly, Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte said.
What the river may do in the spring is still uncertain, though. Thursday’s Mississippi River Commission briefing predicted “a very wet spring,” Matte said.
“We’re going to have to just watch,” Matte said.
This morning, National Weather Service Meteorologist Roger Erickson said typically during El Niño, the Gulf Coast sees more rain in the winter. In early December, the “bullseye” of the rain was further north on the Mississippi River, which caused the rain to come down the river earlier, Erickson said.
Erickson expects the Gulf Coast to see substantial rain through the spring, but the chance of areas further north, such as Illinois and Missouri, continuing to get a lot of rain is about “50/50,” he said.
“So it’s hard to say if we’re going to have a secondary surge in the spring,” Erickson said.
On Thursday, workers were driving steel sheet pilings around the barge that officials installed at Bayou Chene earlier in the week. The steel sheet pilings, which workers should finish driving Saturday, are what actually block potential floodwaters from getting through the structure, St. Mary Levee District Operations Manager Michael Brocato Jr. said.
The barge holds the sheet pilings in place, Brocato said. Work began last weekend to install the structure.
Engineer Jeff Peña of CB&I, an engineering company, said Thursday that workers had installed 500 feet of sheet pilings thus far. About 20,000 tons of rock will be placed around the structure this weekend, Peña said.
There were two spots Thursday where water could still get through the Bayou Chene structure, but those spots will be blocked off by Saturday, Brocato said.
The Louisiana National Guard was finishing building a levee Thursday on Avoca Island, which is necessary to prevent the water from bypassing Bayou Chene and flooding Amelia, Lower St. Martin, Terrebonne, Lafourche, Assumption and Iberville parishes.
Maj. Lance Hargrave, operations officer for the Louisiana National Guard’s 256th Infantry Brigade, has served in the National Guard for 26 years, including a couple of deployments in Iraq. He said building a levee system of HESCO baskets filled with sand on Avoca Island has been one of the toughest missions he’s faced.
Dealing with Mother Nature and 1½ inches of rain on the island the day before the National Guard came to Avoca Island made the brigade’s task difficult, Hargrave said. As of Thursday morning, Hargrave said the over 100 personnel stationed on Avoca Island had just a few more hours until they completed the nearly three miles of levees crews have been working on 24/7 for over a week.
Task Force Commander Maj. Jim Williams, who fought in Iraq with Hargrave, echoed Hargrave’s comments saying the work on Avoca Island is one of the “toughest fights” he’s been in.
Rain turned the island into a “soup” with personnel having to wade through ankle deep and sometimes almost knee deep slush, Williams said. Special equipment, including “marsh buggy-type dump trucks,” allowed the National Guard to be able to get their work done, Williams said.
All of the government officials in St. Mary Parish have been extremely helpful in assisting the National Guard to accomplish the mission, Williams said.