PLAQUEMINES PARISH, La. — Carolyn Sylve has lived in lower Plaquemines Parish for 72 years, spending most of that time at her home on Morris Lane in the West Pointe a la Hache community.
“This is all like family area,” Sylve said. “This is family around here.”
Like most people who call this area home, she’s a bit concerned with all the rain the National Weather Service expects to hit Plaquemines Parish through the weekend.
A bit of relief though, what started out as ten to fifteen inches is now anywhere from five to ten.
“That canal over there is my concern,” Sylve said as she pointed across Highway 23.
Parish President Kirk Lepine said canals are being drained by pumping stations, like one with a lowered waterline along highway 23.
He expects the heaviest rain in places like Port Sulfur, Buras, Boothville and Pointe a la Hache.
Lepine said 82 percent of all pumping stations are available to deal with potential flooding.
“When you get these thunderstorms that produce such a severity of rain in such a short period of time, I don’t care if you’re pumping a hundred percent capacity, it’s not going to make it any faster to drain,” Lepine said.
Most of the parish has been dealing with lots of rain the past several days. The ground is already wet and what’s expected to come could be the biggest rainmaker since Hurricane Ida almost a year ago.
Folks in places like Ironton and West Pointe a la Hache are still trying to get back in their homes.
Sylve said more than ten feet of storm surge put water in hers. She’s been living in a trailer for the last eight months and is worried any major flooding from rainfall may put water in that.
“There’s really no protection, no real protection. When the water comes in, we’re going to be right back at it again,” Sylve said.
According to the parish office of homeland security, the last weather service reports of rainfall causing homes to flood was during a storm in March 2009. That doesn’t stop concerns though.
“Our residents get worried when the water gains on the street but sometimes the heavy downpour takes a while to get to our canals to drain to our pumping stations,” Lepine said.
Sylve wants that canal she’s concerned about, the one close to her home, to be closed off. She is not just worried about rainstorms, but about bigger storms in the future.
“Close that canal over there, if you don’t, we’re going to be right back at it again. We’re going to be at a loss again,” Sylve said.
That’s a type of loss Sylve said is driving people away, erasing that sense of family and community. Mike McDaniel, Eyewitness News.