Post by tigergirl on Oct 6, 2007 12:41:22 GMT -6
This just shows you don't need a land falling storm to flood:
From WWLTV.com:
From WWLTV.com:
| DULAC -- In the constant war between the salt water and the good earth, the Gulf of Mexico won another small skirmish Friday. Emily Schwarze / The Courier A little storm passed far out to sea, never organized beyond a system called a low, but Laura Verdin will likely lose her flower garden to the salt. Kenneth Verret never made it out of the house to his college class, because the bottom of his wheelchair ramp was underwater. "When the tide gets a little high," said Harold Billiot, celebrating his wife’s 48th birthday as the water rose in the ditches around them, "the poor people on that side of the street flood all the time." The all-too-familiar reason for the sunny-day flooding was the lethal, two-pronged combination of abnormally high tides and strong south winds that so often disrupts life in low-lying south Terrebonne, the experts said. Caused by a low-pressure system off the coast of Texas, the winds and tides were likely to abate today, said Carl Arredondo, chief meteorologist with WWL Channel 4 New Orleans. The bayou water appeared in peopleës yards mid-morning and caught many off guard, so they hurriedly moved cars and lawnmowers to the highest spots on their property. Levee director Jerome Zeringue, however, said flooding in Dulac was unsurprising -- the district had to close all of the parish flood gates last night on Humble Canal, Bayou Terrebonne, and Bayou Little Caillou. Those areas fared better. No flooding was reported in Montegut, and while Cocodrie saw 8 or 9 inches in the morning, it quickly receded in the afternoon. "The problem with Dulac is that they don’t have a proper floodgate," said Zeringue. "There’s no structure out there to provide relief." Lafourche officials closed the floodgates at 7 a.m. to prevent flooding in Golden Meadow, and the water levels still hadn’t receded enough by afternoon to allow boat traffic into Bayou Lafourche, said Windell Curole, general manager of the South Lafourche Levee District. "We got shrimp boats and tug boats waiting, people needing to do business," Curole said. LIVING IN DULAC In Dulac, the thin layer of water -- several inches in some yards, but far deeper in spots where the yards were low -- prompted varying responses of frustration, resignation and even some jubilation along Shrimpers Row. Where the water passed over Onezia Street, touloulou crabs paddled over the blacktop. Underneath some raised houses, soaked children pulled wooden pirogues or threw footballs, diving with a splash for every pass. Mary Verret said she had already called the parish about the water that surrounded her elevated house, but expected little to be done. It was her wheelchair-bound 22-year-old son that couldn’t make it to his math class, but she said she’s been fighting the periodic floodwaters since before he was born. "It’s time they do something about it, not tomorrow -- today," Verret said. "I’m sure it’s fixable. I just don’t know what they’re doing about it." Half a block behind her, Paul and Laura Verdin stood on their porch, a front row seat to the water’s crawl across the land. Their house is the closest to Bayou Grand Caillou on the street. "If we had good drainage, the water would go in the canal," Paul Verdin said. "But it stays right there." Unlike their house, all the potted plants in the yard were raised, sitting on cinder blocks or other objects above the water. Laura gave a brief tour of her yard, her blue sandals cutting a splashing path through the bayou water. "I hate to see my flowers gone," Verdin said as she looked at her soggy little garden. "But it’s part of living in Dulac." As she spoke, she pointed to wet spots in the yard. Those were dry an hour earlier, she said, as the water kept rippling in |
