OPELOUSAS, La. — Residents living on Magnolia Street in Opelousas are fed up with the culvert and drainage.
"This is terrible. I have been living here for 59 years. We never had this problem," said resident Nela Badeaux.
She and other residents believe the culvert in the middle of their neighborhood street is clogged and needs proper water flow to drain correctly. The culvert causes severe flooding in their neighborhood.
Wednesday afternoon, Parish crew members were on the scene making repairs to the culvert, adding sediments and large rocks to solidify it and keep it from eroding around the corners close to the road that dozens travel over. The Parish's goal is to ensure the road on top of the trench is passable.
Cindy Briley, a nearby resident, calls it all a mess.
"Look at this massive bolder right here that they are putting to prevent the water from coming through the culvert. I had flooding all around my house. It was two feet of water around my house; it was a lake," said Briley.
On top of that, there is another issue of concern.
"We have a neighbor that lives right next to the gully that lost 8 feet of his property," said Briley.
Briley lives on Magnolia Street. She says her neighbor, who only lives a few houses down, fears losing his home as it sits near the edge of receding land inches from the 8-foot-deep culvert. To make matters worse, this neighbor has an oak tree inches from the receding land.
"If that tree falls because of the erosion, that will be catastrophic. It could land on the powerlines, causing a massive outage for the city," said Briley.
In addition to the culvert, the ditches are filled with water, making it difficult for 86-year-old Nela Badeaux to spend time with her family.
"I have a 9-month-old great-grandbaby. He can't go outside with the Mosquitos attacking him," said Badeaux.
She and her neighbors are unclear about where the water is coming from. The issue has also been going on for quite some time.
"It has been about a year since they came out and dug the ditches for water flow," said Briley.
"I had water from this past week when it rained up to my kitchen door. We can't get help for nothing," said Badeaux.
But that all changed after a call from KATC, a surprise. Parish President Jessie Bellard came on the scene to talk to neighbors, trying to find the cause of the clogged ditches.
"While I was here noticing all the water in the ditches, there are a few water leaks, but I will make sure to make calls and get someone out here to check it out and flush the ditches to make sure everything is draining properly," said Parish President Jessie Bellard.
"I am glad our Parish president hears us and is being proactive," said Briley.
As for the neighbor with the tree in his backyard, Bellard said that is out of the Parish's control and advises that the resident purchase bulkheads to protect their property from erosion.
As for the culvert, he says they plan to flush it out and check for any drainage concerns. The addition of the concrete to solidify the road should be completed in 2 weeks.
