WBRZ - Baton Rouge

VIDALIA- Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland says an old drain below the city's riverfront development blew out and briefly sent water tunneling under the Hesco barriers protecting the convention center.

He told a newspaper on Monday that the leak was contained.

Officials have built walls of Hesco baskets - fabric-lined metal baskets filled with sand - around each of four riverfront buildings and two city water wells on the flooded riverfront. Pumps within each wall remove seepage.

Copeland says there'll be more seepage as the river rises, but the pumps can handle it.

He estimates that the Hesco barriers will have to protect the buildings for almost two more weeks before the water recedes from the riverfront.