The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority believes the state’s flood protection systems are in good shape even after being tested by a record hurricane season.
CPRA Chief of Engineering Rudy Simoneaux said one problem area was the Burrito Levee in Grand Isle that was breached during Zeta. He says it will need some repairs.
“It was moving fast so you had the forward momentum plus the actual hurricane wind speed but it still pushed up a lot of water and it pushed up a lot of wave action and that is really what damaged that levee,” said Simoneaux.
The Burrito Levee is a seven-mile, 13-foot tall structure of dry clay covered in tarp protecting the city that faces the Gulf. Despite the breach, most Grand Isle homes are reportedly ok due to being highly elevated on stilts.
Simoneaux said this week they’re aiming to get down into lower Terrebonne Parish near Cocodrie where the storm made landfall for further inspections.
“There is a flood protection system around the lower Terrebonne area and most of those areas outside the flood protection system do sustain a lot of flooding even when there isn’t a major storm,” said Simoneaux.
Simoneaux said a lot of the projects out in southwest Louisiana did pretty well despite being hammered by Hurricanes Laura and Delta.
“We do have a lot of marsh projects which generally speaking have fared well and we do have a lot of rock along the shorelines to prevent erosion and those fared well also,” said Simoneaux.
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