Nate Monroe and Nikki Buskey / Houma Courier
Tropical Storm Lee promoted a few bridge and road closures and flooded a yards in low-lying areas, but for the most part, Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes are faring a lot better than earlier forecasts had predicted.
Officials have closed La. 1 south of Golden Meadow because of high water caused by storm surge and heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Lee.
There are some reports of flooding in lower Terrebonne, Parish President Michel Claudet said.
Lafourche spokesman Brennan Matherne said the highway was covered by at least 1 foot of water and as much as 2 feet of water in some parts.
The Valentine Pontoon Bridge that spans Bayou Lafourche is also closed, he said.
La. 1 and the bridge will reopen when water levels fall, but Matherne said residents shouldn't expect that to happen until 'the bulk of the storm passes through.'
There are no reports of flooded homes in the parish, Matherne said, and sporadic reports of power outages. He said there were less than 50 homes without power.
There was a report of a tree that fell on one Raceland home, Matherne said.
Claudet said there were no major road closures in Terrebonne. A break in rainfall Saturday morning gave the parish's pump stations time to catch up with the water, he said.
'We're hoping we dodged a little bullet on this,' Claudet said.
There were no reports of house flooding in the northern parts of Terrebonne. He said there were unconfirmed reports of flooded homes in the extreme low portions of the parish, including Cocodrie, Isle de Jean Charles and Pointe-aux-Chenes.
He said there were no reports of major power outages in Terrebonne this morning. Homes in the Barrios Subdivision near the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center were without power for a little over an hour last night, Claudet said.
About 2 to 3.5 inches of rain fell throughout Terrebonne and Lafourche last night and early this morning, officials said.
At 4 this afternoon, Lee's center was buffeting the shore near New Iberia, about 80 miles west of Houma and Thibodaux, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was moving erratically but generally drifting north near 4 mph.
A slow and possibly erratic drift to the north or north-northwest is expected during the 24 hours, followed by a turn toward the northeast, the center said. Its centrer was forecast to come ashore completely later this afternoon or this evening.
Maximum sustained winds remained near 60 mph, with gusts as high as 75 mph. Some fluctuations in strength are possible this afternoon and evening, with a gradual weakening by Sunday, the forecast says.
Tropical-storm-force winds above 39 mph extend outward up to 230 miles from the center. The Houma-Thibodaux area was seeing continued squalls and gusts throughout the day, but street flooding was mostly limited to areas outside protection levees, officials said.
Local officials were hoping the storm would pass quickly without dumping the 15-20 inches of rain that had been predicted over the Labor Day weekend. Bayous, including Bayou Terrebonne through downtown Houma, were swelling.
Some weather reports were indicating that winds were beginning to shift from south to north this afternoon. Winds from the north would push water out of the bayous and back into the Gulf, freeing local officials to open floodgates now closed to stop storm surges and high tides Lee continues to push in from the Gulf.
Terrebonne Levee Director Reggie Dupre said officials were able to open the Boudreaux Canal floodgate in Chauvin at noon.The Bayou Terrebonne floodgate in Montegut followed about 4 p.m.
The Humble Canal, Bush Canal, Little Caillou and Bayou Dularge floodgates remain closed.
Dupre said that tidal surge peaked at about 6.5 feet above sea level at the Bayou Terrebonne floodgate in Montegut. That was the highest water level recorded in the parish. A normal tide is about 1.5 feet above sea level, Dupre said, so the storm brought as much as 5 feet of extra water into some communities.
Water levels are now falling, Dupre said.
Levee officials opened the floodgates to allow rain waters that had caused some flooding to drain out of communities. The hope to get some of the water out of Chauvin and Montegut before they must close the floodgates again later tonight against the rising tide.
Employees are manning all of the gates.
'We hope to drain some of the waters out of these communities so we can regroup,' Dupre said.
A high tide will raise water levels again at 5 a.m. Sunday, Dupre said.
Dupre said levee officials will face the storm's winds and rains through late tomorrow morning, when the storm is expected to pass over the area.
After that, winds will switch to the north and will assist in draining bayou communities.
South Lafourche is was locked down against the high water this evening, with its floodgate in Larose and its lock in Golden Meadow closed until the storm passes.
'We have stopped navigation on Bayou Lafourche,' South Lafourche Levee Director Windell Curole said.
Heavy rains have made the bayou inside the ring levee system rise, and water is trickling over La. 1 in Golden Meadow, Curole said.
The South Lafourche Levee District had pumped down borrow canals to make room for rainfall, but those canals and the bayou are now full to capacity.
He said the district needs the weather to stay dry so the pumps can catch up and stabilize the situation.
'It would take another good shot of rain to get water into houses,' Curole said.
Water outside the lock and floodgate is about 2 feet too high to open the system and drain the bayou, he said.
Once the storm passes and the tide goes down, 'everything gets easier,' Curole said.
Storm surge could raise water levels locally by as much as 3 to 5 feet above ground level, the National Weather Service said late this afternoon. All of the Louisiana coast and much of the Gulf Coast remain under a tornado watch through Monday, though no touchdowns had been reported today or Friday.
Earlier today, Ken Graham, a meteorologist with the National Weather Serivce in Slidell, said dry air from the west is being drawn into the system and could weaken the storm.
Graham cautioned that the storm could stall once it makes landfall. South Louisiana is in for at least another day and a half of wind and rain, he said.
'The slow movement is still going to cause some problems,' he said. 'Lee is a big system.'
