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During Hurricane Francine, the City had between 8” and 11” of rain. This amount spread out over a 12 hour period we can typically handle. The challenge with Francine is we received an inordinate amount between 11:00pm and 1:00am.
Whether this was 2”, 3” or 4” in a 2 hour span we really can’t say. However, what we can say is it was a greater amount of run-off than Blue Swamp Creek, Mile Branch, Patricia Canal, Simpson Creek and St. Paul’s Creek could contain within their banks.
Please know the Administration and the Council continue to study and research each “ditch” – and I choose the word ditch because in many areas, Blue Swamp Creek, Rattlesnake Branch, Cherokee Creek, MLK Creek, Patricia Canal, Mile Branch, Simpson Creek, St. Paul’s creek and Mackie Creek are nothing more than big ditches.
We recognize that the frequency and the intensity of rain events are increasing and that sitting on the drainage status quo may not be sufficient in the future. It is our job to assess each of the 10 gravity drainage tributaries in search of feasible improvements that we can implement.
Current priority #1 is MLK Creek which drains the Justice Center, flowing under Larry’s Hardware and is currently threatening a cave-in of the Department of Child and Family Services aka DCFS. Engineering design is currently underway to move that subsurface riverine away from the building. To my chagrin and that of the Council, this is a future expense of a few hundred thousand dollars for which none of us asked.
Our second priority, based on need as well as feasibility, is improvements on Savannah Subdivision Detention Pond #2. In a cooperative endeavor with the Parish the City purchased property and had it cleared. Currently the Parish Public Works Department is constructing improvements which should benefit all folks on the Mile Branch.
Once these projects are complete, we can review all 10 of our tributaries / ditches for where we might get the best bang for our bucks.
I’d like to give kudos to our Public Works Department (PW) which de-snags those streams that are City responsibility every 2 years – allowing for growth of young vegetation … which mitigates erosion, but removing that growth soon enough so as not to obstruct the flow.
Further kudos for their camera work in our subsurface culverts. The 3 blocks of culverts running through St. Paul’s were found to be clear. MLK was found to be obstructed by a log and a flat screen tv. Thanks to our Fire Department who practiced search and rescue, crawled through the culvert with oxygen tanks and removed the blockage. In a search and rescue training exercise near Covington Elementary, PW and FD combined to discover what appears to be a beaver dam underneath one of our streets. They are working now to remove it.
Public Works also discovered a collapsed and undersized terracotta culvert on Theard Street near LOLA restaurant. They replaced non-functional culverts with new culverts and extended the drainage into the Tammany Trace – again in cooperation with the Parish as they own that portion of the Trace.
Finally, a shout out to Public Works for their work at Bogue Falaya Park. After the flash flood two weeks ago, not only did they clean the Park but made it sparkle for the Bluesberry Festival.
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