National Guard, local agencies meet threat of flooding head-on

By COLIN MURPHEY
Despite the prediction that the expected high water event coming to St. Mary Parish will not be as serious as once thought, preparations continue in parts of the area to prevent damage from flooding.
On Avoca Island, just outside Morgan City, and other sites in the parish, officials with the St. Mary Parish Levee District and the U.S. National Guard have put in place a variety of measures to ensure the rising water from recent flooding upriver will not pose a threat to people and property.
St. Mary Parish Levee District Operations Manager Mike Brocato said the measures put in place should mitigate the effects of rising water that is expected to crest in the area in coming weeks.
“The water from Bayou Chene is overflowing the banks and coming in here,” Brocato said. “All of these areas are flooded right now but this is working. The National Guard has been working out here in terrible conditions for seven or eight days and it has been a challenge.”
The conditions Brocato referred to have been improving with favorable weather over the last few days, but the National Guard soldiers putting in place equipment to prevent flooding in the area have had to brave conditions their commanding officers said were worse than conditions they faced in warzones such as Iraq or Afghanistan.
Brocato said, were it not for the efforts of the National Guard, the flood control measures would not have been possible.
“This would have never been accomplished were it not for them,” Brocato said.
Operations Officer Major Lance Hargrave said the conditions on the ground were as difficult as he had ever faced in his career with the armed services.
“I’ve been in the (National) guard for 26 years and I’ve dealt with a lot of hurricanes and a lot of emergency operations and a couple trips to Iraq, but this might be one of the toughest fights I’ve ever had,” Hargrave said. “Dealing with Mother Nature and an inch and a half of rain the day before we started and trying to get supplies here has been tough.”
Hargrave’s colleague, Major Jim Williams, reiterated his perception of the difficulty of the mission and the complexity of establishing flood control measures under the current conditions.
“This has been one of the toughest fights I’ve been in,” Williams said. “We fought in Iraq together but this…this has been tough. The rain turned this whole area into a soup barrier. The mud has been ankle and knee deep in some areas. We’ve had to bring in equipment that isn’t in the Army’s inventory just to get this job accomplished. We usually are trying to just get through stuff like this and not build in it.”
Williams praised Brocato and other local officials as well as the St. Mary Parish Levee District for their ability to get the job accomplished and to do what was necessary to protect the people and property of local communities.
“They have all been about ‘how do we get it done and what can we do to help and what do you need?’ It could not have been scripted any better,” Williams said. “There have been no turf battles. We had a job to get done. They have been great to work with. One of the great things that has come out of this is the relationships that we have built.”