Drivers in some parishes still contending with flooded roadways
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BATON ROUGE - Tuesday, DOTD crews filled aqua dams on Highway 70 in Assumption Parish right outside the Dow Chemical plant.
"We have water encroaching the highway, and as you can see we have lots of traffic estimated 9,000 vehicles pass here each day and we're taking some precautionary measures. We're putting tiger dams up to keep the water off the highway," Assumption Parish OEP director John Boudreaux said.
High water in the river parishes has been making roadways impassable and threatening homes. The already cresting waterways were filled with a week's worth of rain, and now it has nowhere to go but into the residential areas.
Just a few minutes down Highway 70 in St. Martin Parish, a section of road has been blocked off to small cars.
"I don't have a truck I have a little bitty car," said Wanda Robichaux, who takes this road to work every day. "Going around takes me three hours compared to one hour driving a day. I've had to borrow a truck so I can get to work on time."
She says she has called parish officials to find out why nothing is being done here and gets the same answer. DOTD says they tried putting aqua dams out here a few weeks ago, but it wasn't working.
The St. Martin parish president says they are ready and waiting for DOTD to ask them for their aqua dams. The parish cannot do anything itself since it is a state highway.