Pense donc!

COMPLEX ISSUE . . .
As I write this Monday afternoon there are still homes in the Cypress Island area that are surrounded by water, some three weeks after the historic rains of mid-August.
Parish officials have taken the unusual step of opening the control structure on the Ruth Canal between Breaux Bridge and Parks to allow some of the water flooding Lake Martin and the surrounding area (including Cypress Island) to drain into Bayou Teche, which has finally returned to near its normal level.
In recent years that Ruth structure has been opened to allow water from Bayou Teche – supplemented by water pumped from the Atchafalaya River via the Teche-Vermilion system – to flow into the Vermilion River so that Vermilion Parish rice farmers could draw water from the river to irrigate their fields.
Some suggest that dredging the Bayou Teche, especially below Keystone Locks, would speed drainage into and out of that stream.
That’s probably true, but such a project would carry a tremendous price tag, considering the many residential and commercial developments along the Teche in Iberia Parish.
There’s plenty of dredging equipment to do the digging. The bigger problems would be disposing of the spoil. Very few property owners along the bayou would welcome thousands of cubic feet of stinky mud in their yards.
Parish President Guy Cormier, who seems to have as good an understanding of the complexity of the parish’s drainage system as any one I’ve encountered, feels that part of our problem stems from the rapid development of subdivisions and shopping centers in neighboring Lafayette Parish.
Where not too very long ago there were acres and acres of sugar cane fields that helped to absorb and hold heavy rains, now you see row after row of homes and dozens of large hard-surfaced parking lots that service all the new shopping centers and commercial operations popping up south of Lafayette.
This tends to dump rain drainage more quickly into the Vermilion River and that stream now strains to handle the load. This in turn causes a back water problem, particularly in the Cypress Island area and the part of the parish directly west of St. Martinville.
Cormier would like to get some cooperation from Lafayette officials in tackling that issue. But our neighbors to the west have a record of looking out for themselves with little consideration for people in other parishes. Their resistance to the Teche Ridge alternative to the I-49 connector along the Evangeline Thruway is a prime example of that self-centered mentality
We started really messing with Mother Nature after the Flood of 1927 with the construction of the protection levees that border the Atchafalaya Basin. That blocked any drainage that used to flow into the Atchafalaya from St. Landry and the extreme northern part of St. Martin and now adds to our drainage problems.
Accommodating the type of record rainfall we had last month is pretty much impossible. Figuring a way to prevent flooding even with the not so heavy rains that are common to our area is indeed a complex issue that needs to be approached at the regional level, not just parish by parish.
Cormier has the right idea. Whether he can convince the folks in Lafayette to sit down and work on a solution that would be best for all is another thing.

THIS & THAT . . .
RIP – We were sorry to learn of the death of Gary Adkins who was the head football coach here at St. Martinville Sr. High for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. He died of lymphoma cancer after coaching the Abbeville Wildcats last year. The Tigers went 11-12 during his stay here, advancing to the playoffs in both seasons, pulling off a stunning upset of Lutcher in the first round of the 2012 playoffs.
Anniversaries – Friends and subscribers who celebrated wedding anniversaries recently included:
Sept. 1 – The 55th anniversary for Gerald and Pat Olivier of Catahoula’; and the 54th for Herbert and Betty (Champagne) Thibodeaux of Breaux Bridge.
Sept. 2 – The 60th for Ernest and Jenelle Cormier of Breaux Bridge.
Sept. 3 – The 50th for Richard and Rosalind of Breaux Bridge.
Sept. 6 – The 52nd for Gary and Mattie (Solari) Barras of St. Martinville.
New subscribers who have joined our family of Teche News readers in recent weeks include Megan Albert and Johnnie Silas of St. Martinville; Terry Borel of Breaux Bridge and Donald Norman of Roswell, N.M.