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Parish checks out inflatable
tubes for flood control - Sandbags cost more, take longer to fill
Wednesday May 14, 2003
By Karen Turni Bazile
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau
Faced with the threat of severe storms that might top levees, local
officials in southeast Louisiana regularly gear up sandbag-making
operations that can yield about 150 bags an hour with two men working
steadily, officials said.
On Tuesday, some of those same officials were impressed with the
demonstration of a newfangled answer to the sandbag: an inflatable
rubber tube that can be filled in 3 ½ minutes and is equal
to 500 sandbags.
"That is quite a lot of sandbags," said Bob Turner,
director of the Lake Borgne Basin Levee District.
Robert C. Bracamontes, director of St. Bernard Parish's Office
of Emergency Preparedness, met Paul Vickers, president of U.S. Flood
Control, a company with offices in Nevada, Florida and Canada, at
an emergency planning conference in Baton Rouge a few weeks ago
and invited him to Chalmette to demonstrate to Turner and emergency
officials from Orleans and Plaquemines parishes and the Army Corps
of Engineers.
St. Charles Parish recently bought about $12,000, or 600 feet,
worth of the portable tubes that are easier to carry and set up
than sandbags, assistant Public Works director Palmer "Poochie"
Cheramie said.
"We found about 100 different good reasons we could use these
for," Cheramie said.
Vickers said the tubes are quickly deployed and are about one-third
the price of sandbag levees, which can be easily breached. Also,
he said, the tubes can be patched like tires and are guaranteed
to last up to 17 years if left outside or longer if they are deflated
and stored.
One bag weighs about 60 pounds dry and empty, but about 6,000 pounds
filled with water, Vickers said. When filled, each bag is 50 feet
long and 18 inches high. To make a quick 3-foot-high dam in an emergency,
officials can make pyramids with two bags on the bottom and one
on top.
Jesse St. Amant, director of the Plaquemines Office of Emergency
Preparedness, said he hopes the parish decides to buy some tubes
to address trouble spots in the long, narrow parish split by the
Mississippi River.
"It's best to have it and not need it rather than to need
it and not have it," St. Amant said.
St. Bernard Chief Administrative Officer Danny Menesses said parish
officials are reviewing the product, but haven't decided whether
to purchase it.
. . . . . . .
Karen Turni Bazile can be reached at kturni@timespicayune.com or
(504) 826-3835.
Article courtesy of Everything New
Orleans www.nola.com
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