Officials: Projected river crest would require Bayou Chene closure

Area officials are making preparations to be able to close Bayou Chene, if deemed necessary, to protect the region from potential riverine flooding.
The St. Mary Levee District commission will meet at 6 p.m. Monday to allow the district to declare a state of emergency in order to be able to take action relating to the projected 9.5-foot crest of the Atchafalaya River at Morgan City on Jan. 23, Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte said.
Matte spoke during Monday’s St. Mary Industrial Group meeting.
Levee district officials have identified potential barges that they could use to close Bayou Chene in Amelia to prevent flooding in the region, he said.
If the Atchafalaya does reach 9.5 feet in Morgan City, officials plan to close Bayou Chene, Matte said.
All of the floodgates along Front Street in Morgan City and Berwick will have to be closed if the river gets to that crest along with gates on the Intracoastal Waterway, Matte said.
River levels in the Atchafalaya should reach 8 feet by Jan. 16.
Projections for the Jan. 23 crest will be “knocking on the door” of what the region saw in 2011, Matte said. During the 2011 flood, the river got to 10.35 feet in Morgan City.
The National Weather Service calculates the projected crest by using the amount of water that’s coming downriver plus 48 hours of rainfall projections, Matte said.
“Any rainfall that takes places (outside of the 48-hour period) has the potential to raise that number,” Matte said.
The weather service’s projection also doesn’t take into account the need to operate the Morganza floodway, Matte said.
If the region reaches the “trigger point” required to open the Morganza flood control structure, there will probably be a rise in the Atchafalaya River crest due to the increased flow of water south of Morganza, Matte said.
The threshold to operate the Morganza structure is when there’s 1.5 million cubic feet per second flowing past the Red River Landing heading to Baton Rouge, Matte said.
The most recent projection officials received for Red River Landing was 1,501,000 cubic feet per second, so “we’re right at that trigger point,” Matte said.
State Rep.-elect Beryl Amedee, R-Gray, also spoke at Monday’s St. Mary Industrial Group meeting. One of Amedee’s focuses to start her term will be efforts to prevent flooding in the region with the anticipated increasing river levels in the next few weeks, she said.
Government officials will have to make a decision within the next weeks whether to open the Morganza Spillway, she said.
In 2011, the Mississippi River crested at 44.8 feet. However, there was minimal flooding in the region due to a 10-week drought prior to the high water, Amedee said. This year, the Mississippi’s projected crest is slightly lower, but the area has had several months of substantial rainfall, Amedee said.
Amedee encouraged people to pay attention to the forecast to determine what action they should take.