Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Sara Piazza | Hesco baskets filled and emplaced by approximately 100 soldiers from the 225th...... read more read more
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HOLLY BEACH, La. – Despite adverse weather brought in by Hurricane Alex earlier this week, Louisiana National Guard soldiers from the 225th Engineer Brigade continue to emplace and repair Hesco barriers along the coast in Cameron Parish, La.
The crew finished a two-and-a-half mile stretch of protective wall along the lowest portions of Highway 82 between the Cameron ferry and Holly Beach just 24 hours before Hurricane Alex hit the Gulf Coast.
“Every time the tide rises more than two feet above normal, it pushes water out over this highway. If these barriers wouldn’t have been in place, we would have had to close the street, wait for the floodwater to go down and then clean up all the debris,” said Clifton Hebert, director of the Cameron Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. “Thanks to the National Guard, the water never touched the road.”
Although the barriers were not emplaced to ward off high tides brought in by hurricanes, Hebert said he was reassured after seeing their reaction to Alex that they will hold up well under normal conditions.
Capt. Ingram M. Scott, logistics officer for the 769th Engineer Battalion, 225th Eng. Bde., is overseeing the Cameron Parish project and said despite the hurricane, their efforts have not slowed on the coast. He said they will take the lessons learned and use them to prepare for similar weather in the future.
“We’ve learned when the Hesco baskets are closer to the water, they don’t withstand the tide as well,” Scott said. “We are now building a second wall to act as a reinforcement barrier behind the sections most damaged by the hurricane, and we plan to build the walls farther from the coastline in the future.”
Scott says his Soldiers are motivated and morale remains high. His crew plans to continue working 12-hour days until their project is complete.
| Date Taken: | 07.03.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 07.03.2010 16:10 |
| Story ID: | 52342 |
| Location: | HOLLY BEACH, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 516 |
| Downloads: | 380 |
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