Temporary repairs hold for Grand Isle levee damaged By Ida

GRAND ISLE, La. - Even though Tropical Storm Ida made landfall more than 100 miles away from Grand Isle, a levee on the island breached and threatened several homes along the southwestern tip of the island.

"At one point, I would say closer to midnight, it was almost a losing battle," said Chris Hernandez, Grand Isle's Street Department Supervisor.

Hernandez was part of the crew that spent more than 16 hours making emergency repairs to the levee, as the storm pushed high waves onto it. The so-called "burrito levee" stretched along 1.5 miles of the island, as part of an emergency repair made after Hurricane Gustav last year.

"The burritos have been sitting there and then when the Corps came in, they started building the geo-tubes from the east to the west," said Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle. "Then they were supposed to come in and replace the geo-tubes on this side."

Earlier this year, the Army Corps of Engineers began installing new geo-tubes to replace the burrito levee, at a cost of about $25 million. Crews had not yet replaced the section of the levee that breached. Part of the reason the burrito levee took a beating during Ida is because there was no beach to protect it from the waves coming in from the Gulf.

The beach eroded over time, making the levee more susceptible. A beach re-nourishment project is underway on the island right now, but a spokesperson for the Army Corps of Engineers told Eyewitness News that the agency is still in the process of making a final determination on whether to actually re-nourish the beach in the area where the levee failed. Grand Isle's mayor said it is a needed part of the project.

"What we should have done is take the suction dredge after the Tarpon Rodeo and came back and repaired this side-- meaning to cover the burritos and at the same time, to come in and put more beach," Mayor Camardelle said.

In the meantime, installation of all the geo-tube levees on Grand Isle is scheduled to be finished by the end of this year. The Corps said there none of the geo-tube levee on Grand Isle suffered any damage during Ida. The Corps plans to resume the rest of the beach re-nourishment project there in the next few days.