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Louisiana parish spared from Barry's floodwaters thanks to working levee system

Posted at 1:13 PM, Jul 14, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-15 09:15:24-04

Officials across Louisiana are still earning residents to be wary. Barry still has the potential to bring a lot of floodwater to a lot of people.

But right now in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, people really are just feet from the Gulf of Mexico. Here, they are essentially breathing a sigh of relief.

Residents were worried that floodwater —the storm surge — would come in and go over.

But the parish has a levee system that held up to Barry. The water came up to just a few feet shy of the levee. Today, the parish and its residents are thankful because this system did exactly what it was supposed to do.

“I was very proud of the way our levee system and lock system upheld," said Colonel Terry Daigre with the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office. "It did its job. We had several feet of water pushed up against our levees and our locks on the outside and the roads were completely dry on the inside.

Most of the town was kept dry thanks to the levee that worked.

Now as Barry continues to make its way north, it is continuing to bring the potential for flooding, lots of rain, possibly overtopped levees and even the potential for tornadoes as the storm makes its way through Louisiana and into Arkansas.

“We’re happy, ya know, for the most part," Daigre said. "I think the big fear of what could have happened is passed us.”