Denham Springs seeks assistance for drainage cleanup
DENHAM SPRINGS - The city of Denham Springs is in the process of cleaning out ditches and culverts, but city officials say more needs to be done to keep the water away from people's homes.
There's no quick fix to the drainage issue, and mayor Gerald Landry said more assistance is needed to help the current clean up effort.
"We're almost in the middle of hurricane season and we just can't wait any longer," Landry said.
The city council unanimously agreed to look for companies to help improve the city's drainage system on Monday. Landry said the city first focused on clearing out larger drainage canals before moving near residential areas during their current work.
"We took the large drainage canals first because we had to have a place for the water to go too," Landry said. "Then we worked our way back in, we're working on smaller ditches until we finally narrow it back to where we actually back to the street level working on people's drainage issues in their yards."
One resident affected by the drainage issue, William Temple, said the city installed a large drain in his yard along with other pipes he added to make sure the water stays out his yard. But Temple believes the issue is bigger than the current solution.
I think they need to knock that wall down on the interstate and it would drain a little bit better you know because that seems to be the problem but our drainage system works pretty good. I don't know if you could ever have a system that could handle what we had a year ago," Temple said.
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While the final flood debris pick up for the city took place Monday, mounds of debris still clog the ditches and pose a major issue for the city. With the debris gone from people's homes, the mayor hopes the cleanup effort will continue.
What would absolutely be fantastic is if everybody just do a little bit make sure you're ditch doesn't have debris in it. Make sure it's not full of leaves, and grass clippings which would help us tremendously," Landry said.