Claudet: Parish work in progress

Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet both praised and challenged residents of the region last Tuesday as he presented his State of the Parish Address to 160 members of the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce.

Starting out with an update on protection measures taken to fight the current Atchafalaya River backwater flooding event, Claudet said he was particularly impressed by the cooperative efforts of 11 area contractors, various government agencies and the general public in building up levees, positioning sandbags, sinking a barge in Bayou Chene to slow water, and providing equipment and manpower to those most vulnerable to flooding. “I’ve never seen such good working relationships,” Claudet said.

The parish president described the 2011 backwater flooding as an event that, because of the way it has come about, has never taken place before in Terrebonne Parish.

“What happened was that there were record rainfalls in the Midwest and northern states, and it [created] the highest levels of the Mississippi River since 1927,” Claudet said. “Never before have we experienced this.”

Claudet said that the Morganza Spillway had indeed been opened during a record flood in 1973. Yet he identified that opening as not being because of Mississippi River water levels.

“It was opened because they had problems with the control structure integrity, and had it broken it would have changed the course of the Mississippi down into our area,” Claudet said. “Consequently, this is an unheard of event that they are opening the Morganza Spillway [to ease pressure and flow of the Mississippi River].”

As has been reported during the past month, opening of the Morganza Spillway into the Atchafalaya Basin is causing concerns of both direct and backwater flooding along coastal parishes.

Claudet pointed out a cooperative effort with St. Mary, Terrebonne, St. Martin and Assumption parishes to sink a 500-foot barge into Bayou Chene, creating a water level difference of more than 2 feet from the front and back side of the barge complex and slowing the flow of backwater.

In his PowerPoint presentation, Claudet noted that more than 15,650 linear feet of tiger dams have been installed around flood prone areas of Bayou Black and Gibson, new levees have been built and existing ones reinforced along the Intracoastal Waterway.

“When we heard that they were going to open that [Morganza Spillway] and [the water release] was going to be much more massive than it had been before … we got engineers [Gulf South Engineers, T. Baker Smith and Shaw Coastal] in our office that day [to address the issue].”

Claudet said that positioning 560 linear feet of sheet piling, building reinforcements, encouraging force drainage, pump placement and the rapid construction of more than 10 miles of new levees was accomplished in a matter of days. “As of [last Monday], 290,000 sandbags have been distributed [at] six locations,” Claudet said.

“One of the things that has helped us is the drought conditions that’s preventing the water from coming down as quickly as it has been in the past,” Claudet said. “At this stage of the game we are unaware of anything further that we truly need to do. We are waiting for it to happen.”

Claudet turned his attention to the economy and reinforced the fact that Terrebonne Parish is dependent upon the petroleum industry. “Shallow water [drilling] permits have gone down, but right now they [have rebounded] to almost the levels that they were [before the April 21, 2010 BP oil spill]. The problem we have is the deepwater permits, and in actuality they are way far from being anywhere close to where they were before,” he said. “We used to average about six a month. For the last three months it’s only been 1.3 per month. We are not happy with that.”

Claudet pointed other development projects including retail construction, work taking place at the LAShip location, and plans by Chevron to build a warehousing site.

“We need to get our whole industry moving again and get people moving back to our area,” Claudet said.

A $2.1 million BP grant is expected to be used to promote recreational saltwater fishing from Terrebonne Parish, according to the parish president.

“If you think about what brings people from out of state to our area, it is either some cultural event or to come fishing,” Claudet said. “If you go to other areas of the country and mention Houma, they usually came here to fish. That is one thing we want to promote.”

Plans for a sediment pipeline are underway to draw water and soil from the Atchafalaya River to areas of Terrebonne Parish targeted for coastal restoration. “The idea is to get it from the Atchafalaya, bring it down and fill in spots that have been degraded.

“We are going to be selling $12 million worth of bonds to construct this [sediment pipeline],” Claudet said.

Claudet has jokingly become known in some circles as the turning lane president because of the road improvement projects undertaken since he entered office in 2008. His map for improved roads and drainage remains full.

He presented several examples of streets set for widening, elevating and connecting already existing roadways, and rebuilding of bridges. He also admitted that not all projects have gone as well as expected.

“Hollywood Road widening has been a nightmare,” he said. “There are 31 [right of way] acquisitions and we have probably done 12 or 15 of them. But we are still working on it.”

Claudet said a significant compliment to overall infrastructure and drainage efforts is the constructing of three pump stations, reservoirs, levees and structural improvements.

“I’m pleased to say that my administration has gotten 809 people up in the air [with home elevations],” he said.

Claudet noted that 744 blighted structures have been addressed since being damaged and left abandoned following hurricanes Gustav and Ike. “We just have to do better as a parish,” he said. “There were 213 derelict vessels in our waterways and so far [this year] we have removed 85. We are going to have any bayou that you drive down you are not going to see this anymore. We have four people every day going down bayous and picking up trash.”

Claudet also announced plans for quality of life venues including a skate park, which is in the design and feasibility state.

Claudet called on those present to be individual pieces of the puzzle to make Terrebonne Parish a better place to work and live.

Vicki Cloutier of Cloutier Eyecare said she was impressed with the multiple elements Claudet pointed out during his presentation.

“I think what he addressed are the things people are concerned about,” Cloutier said. “They seem to be very organized in their approach. [I realized] there is a lot about Houma that I don’t know. I love seeing that the fingers are reaching to all these areas even when we are not [personally] aware of it. I’m very encouraged.”

“I think it is clearly evident that [Claudet] has a tremendous amount of activity on the shelf and the entire administration is working very hard to employ the necessary infrastructure for the community to continue to grow and develop,” Chamber Chairman J.J. Buquet said following the State of the Parish presentation. “We have seen him incorporate some of our thinking in his planning. It’s encouraging.”

“We can all be part of the problem or we can be part of the solution,” Claudet said regarding the various topics he placed before the public. “If we work together it makes a gigantic difference.”

Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet addresses flood protection, infrastructure improvement, economic development and quality of life during the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce membership meeting. MIKE NIXON