ST. TAMMANY, La. -- There is rising concern about river levels and potential flooding on the Northshore.
"We've had a wet October," said David Reed, the hydrologist in charge at the National Weather Service office in Slidell. "We had a very wet December. We had above normal rainfall in February, and so, to put it simply, that heavy rain has saturated the soils."
According to Reed, that soil saturation is what makes 2010 different from 2009. When rising river levels threatened thousands of homes in eastern St. Tammany in April 2009, the Honey Island Swamp was considerably drier, and therefore, able to take on much more water than it is now. As a result, only minor street flooding resulted.
"Last year when it flooded," Reed added, "there was storage area where that water could do down there instead of rising up. This year, if we have a similar flood event, we would expect more damages than we had last year."
So now parish leaders want to make sure people are aware of what could be coming.
"We're just trying to be up in front with this potential disaster," St. Tammany Emergency Manager Dexter Accardo said Tuesday, "and it would be a disaster of that magnitude. And then again, it might not happen."
Accardo advises anyone in the potentially effected area to have a plan, much like a hurricane plan. He said the biggest areas of concern are in the town of Pearl River, then south, east of Military Road to White Kitchen.
"That's over 5,000 homes," Accardo added. "So that could probably displace some 14,000 people."
The concerns also spread into Washington Parish, where last April, the Bogue Chitto River flooded much of Enon.
The Bogue Chitto is part of the West Pearl System, which hydrologists will now closely monitor for the next three months.
