Louisiana Governor Surveys Hurricane Barry Impact, Praises Levee System

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards surveyed areas affected by Hurricane Barry and praised the state’s storm preparedness at a press conference in Terrebonne Parish on Monday, July 15.

“The preparations here started many, many years ago when the people of Terrebonne Parish realized the urgency, the importance, of levees to protect against storm surge,” Edwards said Monday during the livestreamed press conference.

Barry hit coastal Louisiana as a hurricane on Saturday, but the National Hurricane Center said it later weakened to a tropical depression.

The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority shared videos after the storm showing a bird’s-eye view of the Bonnet Carré Spillway, a flood-control structure in St. Charles Parish, and the Morganza to the Gulf of Mexico Project in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.

According to local media, the Morganza project – a major operation begun several years ago that raises levees by four feet – aimed to reduce “hurricane and storm surge risk” by integrating levees, floodgates, and other water-control structures near the coastal city of Houma, according to a US Army Corps of Engineers report.

Edwards said an unprecedented 900,000 sandbags were distributed across Louisiana ahead of Barry. “Without Morganza, the parish would’ve been devastated,” Dove told local media. “The water damage would’ve been astronomical with just this event.” Credit: Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority via Storyful