Category: Regional News

Baton Rouge / louisianaradionetwork.com

Governor John Bel Edwards says to expect Tropical Storm Nicholas to be downgraded to a depression as it enters southwest Louisiana, but noting that it doesn’t take a named storm to bring dangerous conditions to the state.

“Life-threatening flash flooding will be the primary concern,” said Edwards.

Nicholas is expected to be a tropical depression once the center of the storm moves into Louisiana on Wednesday.

“And I would only have to point back to 2016 here, and in May of this year as well, that we had unnamed storms that caused significant property damage,” said Edwards.

The rains that Tropical Storm Nicholas will bring to the state, even as a depression, could exacerbate the problem of getting more of Ida storm victim out of the dark after weeks without power.

“It’s possible that…that uh…not just the continued restoration efforts could be slowed, but some of what has already been restored could be lost as well for some period of time,” said Edwards.

According to the Louisiana Public Service Commission, 110-thousand customers had still not had their power restored after the massive destruction to energy systems in southeast Louisiana.

Edwards is warning that south Louisiana is facing anywhere from two to 20 inches of rain from the storm system as it moves eastward across the state.  The state fire marshal’s office has tripled the number of boats on standby to carry out rescues where and when necessary.

Meantime, Edwards says the death toll from Ida in Louisiana has climbed by two to 28…the latest victims said to be elderly and from Baton Rouge died of heat-related causes due to a loss of power during Ida.

Governor Edwards warns of trouble Nicholas could bring

HOUSTON (AP) — Tropical Storm Nicholas gathered strength Monday and threatened to blow ashore in Texas as a hurricane that could bring up to 20 inches of rain to parts of the Gulf Coast, including the same area hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and storm-battered Louisiana.

Nearly all of the state’s coastline was under a tropical storm warning that included potential flash floods and urban flooding. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said authorities placed rescue teams and resources in the Houston area and along the coast.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the system’s top sustained winds reached 60 mph (95 kph). If the winds hit 74 mph, the storm would become a Category 1 hurricane. It was moving north at 12 mph (19 kph) on a track to pass near the South Texas coast later in the day, then move onshore in the evening.

In flood-prone Houston, officials worried that heavy rain expected to arrive late Monday and early Tuesday could inundate streets and flood homes. Authorities deployed high-water rescue vehicles throughout the city and erected barricades at more than 40 locations that tend to flood, Mayor Sylvester Turner said.

“This city is very resilient. We know what we need to do. We know about preparing,” said Turner, referencing four major flood events that have hit the Houston area in recent years, including devastating damage from Harvey.

Several schools in the Houston and Galveston areas were closed Monday because of the incoming storm. The Houston school district, the state’s largest, announced that classes would be canceled on Tuesday.

COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites were closed in Harris County, which includes Houston; Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston; and Nueces County, which includes Corpus Christi.

On Monday afternoon, Nicholas was centered roughly 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of Port Aransas, Texas, and 105 miles (169 kilometers) south of Port O’Connor, Texas. It was “moving erratically” just offshore, the hurricane center said.

A hurricane watch was issued from Port Aransas to San Luis Pass.

Eight to 16 inches (20 to 40 centimeters) of rain were expected along the middle and upper Texas coast, with isolated maximum amounts of 20 inches (50 centimeters) possible. Other parts of southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana could see 5 to 10 inches (12.5 to 25 centimeters) over the coming days.

“Listen to local weather alerts and heed local advisories about the right and safe thing to do, and you’ll make it through this storm just like you’ve had many other storms,” Abbott said during a news conference in Houston.

Nicholas was headed toward the same area of Texas that was hit hard by Harvey. That storm made landfall in the middle Texas coast then stalled for four days, dropping more than 60 inches (152 cm) of rain in parts of southeast Texas. Harvey was blamed for at least 68 deaths, including 36 in the Houston area.

But University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy said he expects that Nicholas “will be magnitudes less than Harvey in every regard.”

The worry with Nicholas will be how slowly it moves. Storms are moving slower in recent decades, and Nicholas could get stuck between two other weather systems, said hurricane researcher Jim Kossin of The Climate Service.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Sunday night, ahead of the storm’s arrival in a state still recovering from Hurricane Ida and last year’s Hurricane Laura and historic flooding.

“The most severe threat to Louisiana is in the southwest portion of the state, where recovery from Hurricane Laura and the May flooding is ongoing,” Edwards said.

The storm was expected to bring the heaviest rainfall west of where Ida slammed into Louisiana two weeks ago.

Across Louisiana, almost 120,000 customers remained without power Monday morning, according to the utility tracking site poweroutage.us.

While Lake Charles received minimal impact from Ida, the city saw multiple wallops from Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta in 2020, a winter storm in February as well as historic flooding this spring.

Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said the city is taking the threat of the storm seriously, as it does all tropical systems.

“Hope and prayer is not a good game plan,” Hunter said.

In Cameron Parish in coastal Louisiana, Scott Trahan was still finishing repairs on his home from Hurricane Laura, which put about 2 feet of water in his house. He hopes to be finished by Christmas. He said many in his area have moved instead of rebuilding.

“If you get your butt whipped about four times, you are not going to get back up again. You are going to go somewhere else,” Trahan said.

Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said via Twitter that Nicholas is the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. Only four other years since 1966 have had 14 or more named storms by Sept. 12: 2005, 2011, 2012 and 2020.

Baton Rouge / louisianaradionetwork.com

State Health Officer Dr. Joe Kanter said when you look at COVID hospitalizations in the state it appears as if they peaked in mid-August but since a major hurricane has hit the state, he fears things could change.

“We’ve had about a 40% reduction since that time. I think the challenge here is given the disruption that the storm presented us, there’s no guarantee that we continue on this downward trajectory,” said Kanter.

On Friday 1,755 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, down more than 40% since the governor issued his latest statewide mask mandate, and the positivity rate has dropped from 14.1% to 11.3%, which is also encouraging.

Kanter said while he’s grateful for the downward trend in COVID hospitalizations he also understands it could be short-lived given the fact that many families were recently forced to shelter with others outside of their immediate household due to Ida.

“Whether that’s in a shelter environment, in an evacuation environment, or even if a family is staying with their neighbor who happens to have power or happens to have a generator,” said Kanter.

Kanter said the message he wants to send is while the numbers are encouraging, we must remain vigilant with COVID mitigation practices to continue to make progress.

“And that means to continue to mask, continue to distance, and ultimately if you’ve not yet chosen to get vaccinated to do that now. We want to continue the progress we’re on and certainly protect against the possibility of future increases,” said Kanter.

New statewide COVID numbers are released weekdays at noon.

COVID hospitalizations appear to have peaked, but storm interruption could divert state’s progress

WASHINGTON (AP) — Divers at the site of an ongoing oil spill that appeared in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida have identified the apparent source as one-foot diameter pipeline displaced from a trench on the ocean floor and broken open.

Talos Energy, the Houston-based company currently paying for the cleanup, said in a statement issued Sunday evening that the busted pipeline does not belong to them.

The company said it is working with the U.S. Coast Guard and other state and federal agencies to coordinate the response and identify the owner of the ruptured pipeline.

Two additional 4-inch pipelines were also identified in the area that are open and apparently abandoned. The company’s statement did not make clear if oil was leaking from the two smaller pipelines, but satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press on Saturday appeared to show at least three different slicks in the same area, the largest drifting more than a dozen miles (more than 19 kilometers) eastward along the Gulf coast.

The AP first reported Wednesday that aerial photos showed a miles-long brown and black oil slick spreading about 2 miles (3 kilometers) south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana. The broken pipe is in relatively shallow water, at about 34 feet (10 meters) of depth.

Talos said the rate of oil appearing on the surface had slowed dramatically in the last 48 hours and no new heavy black crude had been seen in the last day.

So far, the spill appears to have remained out to sea and has not impacted the Louisiana shoreline. There is not yet any estimate for how much oil was in the water.

The Coast Guard said Saturday its response teams are monitoring reports and satellite imagery to determine the scope of the discharge, which is located in Bay Marchand, Block 4. Talos previously leased Bay Marchand, Block 5, but ceased production there in 2017, plugged its wells and removed all pipeline infrastructure by 2019, according to the company.

The area where the spill is located has been drilled for oil and gas for decades. Federal leasing maps show it contains a latticework of old pipelines, plugged wells and abandoned platforms, along with newer infrastructure still in use.

With the source of the oil unclear, Talos hired Clean Gulf Associates to respond to the spill. Clean Gulf, a nonprofit oil-spill response cooperative that works with the energy exploration and production industry, has had two 95-foot vessels at the scene of the spill since Wednesday attempting to contain and recover crude from the water.

The Bay Marchand spill is one of dozens of reported environmental hazards state and federal regulators are tracking in Louisiana and the Gulf following the Category 4 hurricane that made landfall at Port Fourchon a week ago. The region is a major production center of the U.S. petrochemical industry.

The AP also first reported Wednesday on images from a National Atmospheric and Oceanic Survey that showed extensive flooding and what appeared to be petroleum in the water at the sprawling Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery located along the Mississippi River south of New Orleans.

After AP published the photos, the Environmental Protection Agency tasked a specially outfitted survey aircraft to fly over that refinery on Thursday, as well as other industrial sites in the area hardest hit by the hurricane’s 150-mph (240-kph) winds and storm surge.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said a state assessment team sent to the Alliance Refinery observed a spill of heavy oil being addressed with booms and absorbent pads. A levee meant to protect the plant had breached, allowing floodwaters to flow in during the storm and then back out as the surge receded.

State environmental officials said there was also no estimate yet available for how much oil might have spilled from the Phillips 66 refinery.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal and state agencies say they are responding to reports of oil and chemical spills resulting from Hurricane Ida following the publication of aerial photos by The Associated Press.

Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Nick Conger said Thursday that a special aircraft carrying photographic and chemical detection equipment was dispatched from Texas to Louisiana to fly over the area hard hit by the Category 4 storm, including a Phillips 66 refinery along the Mississippi River where the AP first reported an apparent oil spill on Wednesday.

Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer 3rd Class Gabriel Wisdom said Thursday that its aircraft has also flown over the refinery, as well as to the Gulf of Mexico. The AP published photos of a miles-long brownish-black slick in the waters south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.

The AP first reported the possible spills Wednesday after reviewing aerial images of the disaster zone taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Ida made landfall Sunday, its eyewall carving through Louisiana with 150 mph winds and a storm surge so powerful it temporarily reversed the flow of the mighty Mississippi.

The NOAA photos showed a black and brown slick floating near a large rig with the name Enterprise Offshore Drilling painted on its helipad. The company, based in Houston, said Thursday that its Enterprise 205 rig was safely secured and evacuated prior to the storm’s arrival and that it did not suffer any damage.

“Enterprise personnel arrived back at the facility on September 1 and confirmed the integrity of all systems and that no environmental discharges occurred from our facility,” the company said in a statement.

Sandy Day, spokesperson for the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which regulates oil rigs, confirmed it had received a report Wednesday about which the oil spill the AP had published photos. But the location was inside state waters, rather than the federal jurisdiction farther offshore.

Patrick Courreges, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, said his agency had no way to physically investigate the spill.

“It’s going to be awhile for us before we can make our way out there,” Courreges said Thursday. ”We don’t have planes, helicopters or Gulf-seaworthy boats.”

Aerial photos taken by an NOAA aircraft Tuesday also showed significant flooding to the massive Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. In some sections of the refinery, a rainbow sheen and black streaks were visible on the water leading toward the river.

In statements issued Monday and Tuesday, Phillips 66 said “some water” was inside the refinery, but did not respond to questions about environmental hazards.

Only after the AP sent the company photos Wednesday showing extensive flooding and what appeared to be petroleum in the water, the company confirmed it had “discovered a sheen of unknown origin in some flooded areas of Alliance Refinery.”

“At this time, the sheen appears to be secured and contained within refinery grounds,” Phillips 66 spokesman Bernardo Fallas said Wednesday evening, three days after the hurricane blew through. “Clean-up crews are on site. The incident was reported to the appropriate regulatory agencies upon discovery.”

Though Fallas characterized the spill as a “sheen of unknown origin,” the report Phillips 66 made to Louisiana regulators Wednesday called it “heavy oil in floodwater,” according to a state call log provided to the AP. The log also contained a call from an oyster harvester concerned that water contamination from the refinery was fouling environmentally sensitive beds downriver.

Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Greg Langley said Wednesday that a state assessment team was sent to the refinery and observed an on-site oil spill being addressed with booms and absorbent pads. A levee meant to protect the plant had breached, allowing floodwaters to flow in during the storm and then back out as the surge receded.

Langley said there was no estimate available for how much oil might have spilled from the refinery.

Louisiana regulators were tracking about 100 reports of chemical and petroleum spills statewide as of Wednesday. The reports ranged from sunken boats leaking diesel to overturned fuel tanks and flooded oil pipelines, according to the call log. Several chemical manufacturers also reported venting or flaring off toxic chemicals due to losing electricity.

Stephanie Morris, spokesperson for the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office, said that four days after Ida hit, state regulators were still in the very early stages of responding to the environmental hazards spawned by the storm. She said a state aircraft had been flying over the affected area, focusing more on identifying ongoing threats than quantifying what had already leaked into the water and air.

“We’re in what we call the rapid assessment phase, because we are trying to assess it from the air,” Morris said. “We’re just getting a sense of what’s out there and locations. We don’t have a sense yet of what the sources of sheens might be or volumes.”

GRAMBLING, La. (AP) — A historically black public university in Louisiana has its second female drum major, nearly 70 years after the first.

Candace Hawthorne, of Dallas, is one of three drum majors this year for Grambling State University’s marching band, the school said in a news release.

“It’s extremely mind-blowing,” said Hawthorne, a senior majoring in both engineering technology and music. “I never would have expected for me to make history like this.”

She said she had always wanted to be a drum major but had lacked the confidence to audition.

Grambling said its first female drum major was Velma Patricia Patterson, who served through 1952. The school did not say when she started.

This year’s other drum majors are head drum major Deante Gibson, a senior from Jeanerette, Louisiana, and Sheavion Jones, a junior from Dallas.

Both are marketing majors; Gibson is also studying management.

Nikole Roebuck, the school’s director of bands, said she is excited about the upcoming season.

“Last year was very different not being able to have a season so it feels good to be back,” she said.