MONROE, La. – The Louisiana National Guard's battle against flooding continued as more than 15 Guard members from the 1022nd Engineer Company and the 844th Engineer Company out of West Monroe, Louisiana, assembled emergency levee walls on the banks of the Ouachita River in Monroe, to protect the city from rising river levels caused by excessive rainfall on March 13.
These Citizen-Soldiers are working with the Tensas Levee Basin District to transform half a mile of hinged concrete slabs, which are usually the sidewalk alongside the river, into a six-foot tall levee.
"This levee is a modular system which can be put up and put down in a day or two," said 1st Lt. Sean Place of West Monroe.
"Anything we can do to save people's businesses and lives, that's what we're here to do," said Staff Sgt. Tommy Dunlop of Choudrant, La.
Elsewhere, search, rescue and recovery of Tangipahoa residents stranded by flood waters dominated much of the Louisiana National Guard's efforts in support of Tangipahoa Parish emergency operations.
These efforts took on added urgency when Tangipahoa Parish authorities shut down electricity to many affected neighborhoods in the Robert and Ponchatoula areas to prevent house fires.
Residents who previously planned to ride out the flood in their houses began to request rescue as their homes heated up and refrigerators stopped humming.
"Since about 1500 [3 p.m. yesterday, March 13] we've responded to a number of emergencies, including medical incidents. Since the power was turned off in many areas, we've seen a much bigger push to help get people out," said 1st Lt. Joshua Knight of Detachment 1, 843rd Horizontal Engineer Company, 205th Engineer Battalion.
The LANG's primary tools for emergency operations were M1078 Light Medium Tactical Vehicles, flat-bottom aluminum boats, Zodiac Mil-Pro inflatable boats and Bridge Erection Boats.
Each was employed for maximum effectiveness depending on the requests for support generated by Tangipahoa Emergency operations.
Spc. Joshua Tassin, Detachment 1, 1087th Transportation Company, was the primary driver of an LMTV pressed for service. The mission's noncommissioned officer-in-charge, Sgt. Kenny Devalcourt, also of the 1087th, had been instructed to survey low-water crossings and bridges. If waters had receded to less than six inches, their instructions were to remove the barricades to permit civilian vehicle passage.
This mission took on increased urgency when Tassin stopped to pick up Tangipahoa Parish officials, including newly elected parish president Robby Miller, who needed to survey some of the very areas on Devalcourt's list.
Tangipahoa Parish emergency operations director and fellow National Guardsman Dawson Primes was accompanying Miller on the survey mission and had a unique rescue mission for the 1087th team. The task – rescue a man, Nicolas Locascio, from his home on Chemekete Road in Robert so that he could cook 200 pounds of Jambalaya for all the first responders who were working the Robert area.
Locascio had planned to cook his Jambalaya at an event on Saturday until that event was cancelled due to the flood. Locascio called local officials volunteering his service but said that while he and his family were fine in their home, he would need help getting himself and his food to the fire station where he could feed everyone.
In certain areas, Devalcourt and his team members had to wade the waters - three-across - in front of Tassin's LMTV as it forded each low water and bridge crossing.
One of Devalcourt's 1087th team members, Sgt. Micah Lonigro, explained that they needed to verify the quality of the road beneath their feet and identify possible sunken obstacles that could impede or damage the high-water truck.
Besides, Lonigro explained, "This gets us out of the truck and into the action, and it's what we're trained to do."
Just south of Robert and east of downtown Ponchatoula, rescue and recovery operations continued all day.
One particular mission involved rescuing a very elderly resident who had refused help earlier until he began to medically suffer after his electricity was shut down. The boats on hand just didn't have the power to cross the strong currents to get to him, so the LANG dispatched two Bridge Erection Boats to accomplish the mission.
The ranking LANG officer-in-charge, Col. Rodney Painting, commander of the 225th Engineer Brigade in Alexandria, explained that the BEBs were sturdier and more powerful with greater capacity, making them essential when strong waters make more typical rescue watercraft impractical.
The parish president arrived at the Ponchatoula area of operations, and, after conferring with authorities and LANG personnel, commented on the importance of LANG assistance to his parish.
"We couldn't have done what we've done without the Louisiana National Guard's work. Your support helped make our search and rescues efforts successful in that we suffered no casualties or injuries. I know things might have turned out differently if the Louisiana Guard hadn't come through," said Miller.