Latest news: September 6, 2011
Mississippi River tried changing course during flooding, leaving huge bill
By Tom Charlier, The Memphis Commercial Appeal. September 6, 2011.
“James Parker steps onto a sandy ledge to get a clearer view of where the Mississippi River almost cut Presidents Island in two, tearing out a half-mile-wide chunk of land and leaving water and flocks of geese on a place where cotton formerly grew…”
More trouble for oyster industry?
By Nikki Buskey, Daily Comet (Lafourche Parish, La.). September 6, 2011.
“With crops decimated by the BP oil spill and freshwater diversions related to river flooding, industry officials say 2012 may be one of the worst years in recent memory for oysters…”
Jindal: State Moving Quickly To Fix Problems In Harvey
WDSU News (New Orleans). September 5, 2011.
“BATON ROUGE, La. — Governor Bobby Jindal issued a statement Monday evening addressing the breach of a protective levee in Harvey and laying out the state’s response. The full text of the statement follows…”
Lafitte residents assess Lee damage
By Katie Moore, WWL TV Eyewitness News. September 5, 2011.
“NEW ORLEANS — Floodwater in Lafitte began slowly dropping Monday, after storm surge from Tropical Storm Lee pushed through Barataria Bay, flooding many parts of the small Jefferson Parish Community…”
Louisiana coastal towns struggle with storm flooding
By Kathy Finn, Reuters. September 5, 2011.
“NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Louisiana Gulf Coast towns and inland waterways continued to struggle with flooding on Monday as the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee tested flood barriers but the city of New Orleans remained in fairly good shape…”
Tropical Storm Lee stirs frustration with Corps levee plans in Plaquemines and Jean Lafitte
By Mark Schleifstein, The New Orleans Times-Picayune. September 5, 2011.
“Flooding from a surge that Tropical Storm Lee pushed north through Barataria Bay has several local officials renewing complaints that the Army Corps of Engineers wrongly delayed or abandoned plans to improve levees in their communities that would have prevented the flooding…”
Halliburton: BP Hid info that might have prevented spill
By Tom Fowler, Houston Chronicle. September 3, 2011.
“Oil field services giant Halliburton says BP hid key information about the Macondo well that could have helped prevent the deadly April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and the ensuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico…”
Letter: Questions of coastal land-building
By Chris Macaluso (Louisiana Wildlife Federation), The Baton Rouge Advocate. September 2, 2011.
“I read with great interest Amy Wold’s front-page article Sunday, Aug. 28, titled “Help or Harm,” detailing a report by LSU’s Eugene Turner and others questioning the benefits and land-building capacity of Mississippi River diversions…”