Thanks to the unusual snow event and the wet winter southeast Louisiana has experienced, the Pearl River’s waters reached swollen levels, limiting access to hunting camps and shutting down the popular Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the refuge is shut down whenever the Pearl’s height reaches 15.5 feet. That height was reached in late December, keeping hunters away for several days during the deer season that ran from Dec. 20-28.
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Water levels were much higher farther north in Washington Parish where the river crested at 20.7 feet in Bogalusa, nearly 3 feet above flood stage, meteorologist Shawn O’Neil with the National Weather Service in Slidell said.
Even with the high water, O’Neil said there were no reports of structures flooding.
“I did get a lot of calls from hunters not able to access their camps,” he said.
That’s all about to change as the river’s water levels are falling, rapidly.
Thursday morning, water heights had fallen to 18.6 feet at Bogalusa and 14.9 feet at the refuge.
O’Neil said they expect the waters to continue dropping at a steady pace until they reach normal stages, around 10 feet by this weekend.
O’Neil said several days of heavy rain combined with several inches of snow that fell in December led to the river swelling.
He also said the area should remain relatively dry for the next several days giving the river time empty.
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Comments
Jim wrote on Jan 24, 2009 11:14 AM:
Village Subdivision Slidell. Water remains at least 12" to 15" higher in our yard than normal. Been like this for at least 2 months. Hope you are right. Normally we have no water in our yard. "