Loose barge totals bridge

LYDIA — Hurricane Ike’s wrath has forced road blockades and added law enforcement to flood-devastated parts of the Teche Area, but hasn’t stopped residents from staying for the aftermath of a surge that could bring Rita-like destruction. The devastation included a rogue barge that destroyed the Warehouse Bayou bridge on Louisiana 83.

State police officers and Louisiana National Guard soldiers continuously turned away vehicles and residents trying to get to their homes at Patoutville Road and Louisiana 83 in Lydia because of high water.

An officer at the blockade said he received reports of a man driving an airboat through the flooded areas, creating dangerous waves for residents who stayed in their homes.

Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Wendell Raborn said deputies arrested the driver of the boat, Harold Dauterive, 49, for curfew violation and trespassing.

There is a 24-hour curfew in effect for flooded areas of the parish, and Sheriff Louis Ackal set a bond of $50,000 for curfew violators.

A few blocks past the blockade, Dwayne and Connie Eskind and their niece Layla Fargo waded through the rising water in their yard to check the flood levels in their home.

“We have water coming into one side of our home right now,” Eskind said at midday Saturday. “But not as much as Rita yet. The water from Rita came all at once.”

A CLECO employee trying to rescue his dogs from his home near the blockade in Lydia said the electric company planned to shut off all power to flooded areas to prevent house fires.

CLECO reported at 4 p.m. Saturday that 866 homes in Iberia were without power.

A few miles south of the blockade, the bridge over Warehouse Bayou was destroyed by an unattended barge that crashed into it Saturday morning during the storm.

Robert Freeman, an environmental science manager with the state Department of Environmental Quality, said the barge appeared to have broken loose and wiped out the bridge.

Half of the barge was stuck against the bridge and the other half was sunken, Freeman said.

The crash also caused a small amount of old diesel fuel and hydraulic fluid to spill into the bayou. Freeman described the barge as a “keyway” barge used to put rigs on for drilling.

No injuries were reported.

Six campers from southeast Texas and a few from Delcambre sought refuge from Ike on Highway 89 near Lake Peigneur, where flood waters had already risen to nearly 6 feet on some areas along the lake’s banks.

Early Saturday morning, Jackie Delcambre of Orange, Texas, watched the white-capped waves on the lake smash around the roof of a flooded building where campers are typically parked.

“The water never crests like this,” said Lisa Broussard, who lives along Lake Peigneur. “The camping spots for RVs are underwater. There was grass there yesterday (Friday).”