| Jeremy Fletcher of Hydra Services assisted with the pumping at Lake Tangipahoa in Mississippi. |
"There were five coastal parishes, among others, affected by Hurricane Isaac. Some have had recent levee improvements that helped prevent flooding. Others, in lower lying areas, experienced greater floods. Those not greatly affected by flooding still suffered large power outages," said John Bienvenu of Better Pumps & Solutions, which has locations in both New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
In Mississippi, flooding wasn't as too dramatic during the storm, but the remnants of Hurricane Isaac still caused problems for local communities. Godwin Eastern District Manager Will Buddin started receiving calls on Saturday before Labor Day that the Percy Quin dam and levee were in jeopardy. Officials wanted to build an emergency spillway. The water level behind the dam needed to be brought down to reduce the threat of cracking, and allow work to begin on the emergency spillway.
"The dam is fed by Lake Tangipahoa, which we estimated to be a 700-900-acre lake. That's a lot of water that would go downstream toward Louisiana," Buddin said. He boarded a plane early Labor Day morning to assist distributor Hydra Service with coordination efforts, calculations, and recommendations for the contractors on-site.
Five 12-inch DPC300 Godwin Dri-Prime pumps and four 8-inch CD225M Dri-Prime pumps were deployed from Hydra Service.
"Everyone was working to get the area under control as quickly as possible with contractors and the Army Corp of Engineers," Buddin said.
The level dropped successfully in two days, and now work has begun to install the emergency spillway. This will prevent such emergencies in the future. The spillway will regulate excess flow in an emergency or torrential downpour and take pressure off the dam.
