Police Jury asks for help with flooding
Print
Email
Save
Share
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
- Page 1 of 2
- SINGLE PAGE VIEW
NEW ROADS — Pointe Coupee Parish Administrator Jimmy Bello told the Police Jury on Tuesday that a coordinated effort is needed after the Morganza Spillway forebay flooded Sunday.
Despite the best efforts of area farmers, parish employees, National Guard personnel and many volunteers, water topped the “potato levee” and massive sandbags atop it, he said.
Such flooding usually means extensive crop loss, and draining the forebay takes four to six months. That probably means no planting of late 2008 crops.
At Bello’s request, jurors approved a resolution he drafted, seeking a joint local, state and federal project to prevent further flooding of the forebay and to facilitate drainage when water does enter the area.
Bello said the flood control structure known as the “potato levee” needs to be raised to a permanent height of 45 feet.
He also said that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers already has plans to build an overflow structure that would accelerate draining the forebay when it does flood, but he said the project has not been funded.
On another matter, there were tense exchanges between police jurors and residents of the Fordoche area.
The residents said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was opening a new site to store decommissioned trailers near their homes, in addition to the site near Lottie where more than 50,000 trailers are stored.
Police Juror Joseph Bergeron said that the new facility is a cleaning area, not a storage site, and Bello and Police Jury President Melanie Bueche tried to say that FEMA calls its own shots on the site, and that there is little, if anything, parish officials can do.
As some of the protesters raised their voices and questioned the honesty of some of the officials, Bueche had a deputy sheriff working a security detail escort them out of the meeting room.
Bueche said FEMA representatives are expected to attended the April 22 meeting.
Jurors were told that the Pointe Coupee Hospital District has offered $500,000 for the site of the former parish nursing home, and for the nearby ground on which Pointe Coupee General Hospital sits. The health district would also pay for demolishing the old nursing home.
The hospital district says it owns the hospital building, but not the grounds.
- NEXT PAGE »
- 1
- 2
 | ||||
| Most Popular | Most Emailed | Hot Topics | ||
