Most Stephensville homes avoid flooding, but not without valiant efforts

While the majority of homes in Stephensville have avoided flooding this spring, many residents had to work long hours in recent weeks to prevent water from getting in their homes.

Elwood Scully, a Stephensville resident and owner of Scully’s Aluminum Boats, said at least seven homes in Bayou Estates Subdivision flooded. Scully used heavy duty tubing to create a dam to protect his property.

Authorities recently reopened the subdivision to outside traffic as flood waters have receded.

Jon Tuttle’s home on Sandra Court didn’t flood, but a rent house he owns across the street took on 4 inches of water that stayed in there for four days. The tenant was working offshore when the home flooded.

Tuttle has lived in Stephensville for 20 years and had previously never seen the water levels this high. He’s already started removing flood damaged parts of the home and is waiting for it to dry as he tries to decide what he needs to do to rent it again.

Dee and Lloyd Hymel moved to Dawn Drive in Bayou Estates in April 2011, just before the Atchafalaya River crested at 10.35 feet in Morgan City at the end of May that year. The latest National Weather Service forecast showed the Atchafalaya was projected to crest near 9 feet Thursday. Local rain Thursday helped push the river stage to 8.72 feet by 1 p.m.

But the high water the Hymels experienced this year was much worse along Bayou Long, where their home sits, than 2011. Neighborhood residents worked tirelessly to do whatever they could to protect their homes with sand bags and water-filled vinyl tubing to act as barriers to protect their homes, along with regularly pumping water.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey website, the water level at nearby Belle River reached 3.57 feet May 22 and was at 2.94 feet Thursday afternoon. On Monday, officials completed the closure of Bayou Chene in Amelia, which has reduced backwater flooding in lower St. Martin Parish and other areas.

Water is eroding the dock area behind their home and gone under the foundation of their home. They want to do something about it, but haven’t for fear they’ll have to remove whatever they do because of a St. Martin Parish flood protection project, Dee Hymel said.

The Hymels praised St. Martin Parish workers for their work to help residents during the flood fight, but they’d like to see leaders take a more proactive approach to providing a longer term solution.

The St. Mary Levee District hopes to have its $80 million Bayou Chene permanent floodgate project operational in about two years, which will help flooding in lower St. Martin and parts of five other parishes.

St. Martin Parish President Chester Cedars said a couple of weeks ago that parish officials had been working diligently to prevent flooding in lower St. Martin Parish and had strategically placed over 100,000 sand bags since early March.

One project that St. Martin officials say should alleviate flooding for many Stephensville residents is the $3.7 million Bayou Estates Floodproofing Project, which includes floodwall along the back of the subdivision, should begin work soon, though an exact start date hasn’t been announced, Cedars said. A community development block grant is funding $2.2 million of the project, along with $1.1 million in hazard mitigation grant funds and $400,000 in St. Martin Parish government funds.

Though the project ran into opposition from some Bayou Estates’ residents, officials developed an alternate plan that allowed officials to avoid litigation and proceed with the project, Cedars said. Officials expect to receive a project permit from the Office of Coastal Management, part of the state Department of Natural Resources, “any day now,” Cedars said.

Scott Green, who lives at the back of Bayou Estates near the proposed floodwall, said he signed off on the alternative two-gate plan in January to allow parish officials to move forward. Green’s property is high enough to where the floodwall isn’t necessary to protect his property.

Thomas Carpenter lives on Stephensville’s Landry Lane, which was still closed to outside traffic as of Wednesday. Carpenter said since officials began closing Bayou Chene half of Landry Lane is no longer under water.

Carpenter said he’s talked with St. Martin officials about meeting after the flood waters recede to discuss drainage issues in Stephensville.