Parish escapes flooding

While the Tri-City area appears to have escaped significant flooding from rainstorms in the past 24 hours, the parish remains under a National Weather Service flash flood watch through 6 p.m. today.
National Weather Service meteorologist Roger Erickson said the amount of rain today and the degree of flooding threat for St. Mary Parish depends on whether a line of heavy rain this morning in St. Landry and Vermillion parishes moves eastward. The chance of rain is 70 percent today and tomorrow with a 50 percent chance on Saturday and 30 percent on Sunday, Erickson said.
The rain gauge at the Bayou Boeuf locks accumulated 1.8 inches of rain in the past 24 hours. The National Weather Service estimated that 2 to 4 inches of rain fell in some places in the parish.
Nick Dinger, an operator at the Berwick locks, reported that 4.5 inches of rain fell there in the 24-hour period ending at 8 a.m.
Berwick Mayor Louis Ratcliff said precautionary barricades were put out when about 3 inches of rain fell in a four-hour period late last night in parts of Berwick. Barricades were deployed near Tournament Boulevard and in the area of Fourth and Texas streets.
“At about 3 to 4 a.m. everything was back to normal with no reports of flooding,” Ratcliff said. “The water on the streets was in areas where we typically have problems during high rainfall.”
Morgan City Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi said his department heads were reporting no damages or flooding in the city and that the streets were not flooded.
Patterson Mayor Rodney Grogan said correcting culvert problems has helped stop the once-frequent cases of flooding of areas south of the railroad tracks.
“We have been fortunate,” Grogan said. “I have not gotten any reports of flooding,” from yesterday and last night’s rainfall.
Because of the rainfall Wednesday and additional rain expected, the St. Mary Parish sheriff’s shooting range is closed for the remainder of the week and will reopen June 4.