Ricky John Bergeron
June 2, 2008June movie releases
June 4, 2008
Windell Curole, the longtime general manager of the South Lafourche Levee District who was recently named interim director of the Terrebonne and North Lafourche levee districts, said that little is certain when it comes to hurricanes threatening Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes.
“No one can guarantee you’re not going to flood,” he said during a speech last week at a Thibodaux Chamber of Commerce luncheon. “That’s like saying no boat can sink.”
Talking about the hurricane threat to the two parishes, Curole said the levees in south Lafourche held back the storm surge from hurricanes Katrina and Rita effectively, except for one segment, which was slightly overtopped. That section was immediately built higher, he said.
But if Hurricane Katrina had made landfall 30 miles west, south Lafourche would have resembled St. Bernard Parish following the storm. St. Bernard received more than a dozen feet of water over most of its area.
Along the Gulf Coast, “Katrina would’ve destroyed anywhere it hit,” he said.
Building levees to Army Corps of Engineers specifications is expensive, he said, but doing so is needed to maintain federally-subsidized flood insurance.
Thibodaux is relatively safe because the city is 13 feet above sea level, according to Curole.
A storm like Katrina with its 28-foot storm surge, however, could cause significant problems for the town, though “we would have to be extremely unlucky … the odds are against it,” he said.
Geographically, Louisiana has large disadvantages and advantages.
“The coast is a skeleton of what it used to be,” Curole said. “They’re catching (the saltwater) redfish in Lake Des Allemands. Subsidence is the controlling factor.”
Among the other negatives: The destruction from a hit by Katrina or Rita on Fourchon would have driven up the price of oil; flooding of Louisiana Highway 1 in south Lafourche during hurricanes makes the $750 million needed to elevate the roadway critical; and Hurricane Betsy in 1965 destroyed nearly every building on Grand Isle.
On the positive side, estuaries, which make up much of the state’s coast, are highly productive.
In west Terrebonne Parish, he said, new land is being formed by sediment from the Atchafalaya River.
Also, the end of the continental shelf lies nearer to Port Fourchon than it does to any other area along the coast, meaning the oil-laden deep water of the Gulf of Mexico is just offshore from the port.
“Fourchon is successful because the continental shelf ends close by,” Curole said. “You get into deep water quick. You get off the shelf and you go into 800 to 1,000 feet of water.” He said Fourchon is often ignored because the port has been so successful.
“We were a fishing community,” Curole said. “Now we’re oil support.”
Windell Curole, regional director of the Terrebonne, South Lafourche and North Lafourche levee districts, looks north along Boudreaux Canal as the flood gates stop surging water caused by strong southerly winds on May 22. * Photo by DARRIN GUIDRY
