Helicopters drop sandbags to protect Louisiana coast from oil spill
By Harry R. Weber and John Curran
The Associated Press
Published: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 12:45 p.m. ON THE GULF OF MEXICO — Black Hawk helicopters peppered Louisiana’s barrier islands with 1-ton sacks of sand Monday to bolster the state’s crucial wetlands against an epic oil spill, 4 million gallons and growing, in the Gulf of Mexico. … As of this morning, officials said, the oil slick remained several miles offshore and had not hit land in Terrebonne, Lafourche or Grand Isle. If that happens — something that depends largely on shifting tides and winds — it would probably take two or three days to reach shore. In Grand Isle, a small army of heavy machinery — civilian and military dump trucks, Army jeeps and Hummers, front-end loaders and backhoes — scurried to fortify a breached section of beach. National Guard helicopters had dropped sandbags on the breach, and later piles of dirt were being pushed together to make a dam, keeping oil from reaching the marshes. National Guard troops worked for a third day today on a project using fill material to hold back the tide near Elmer’s Island, a 230-acre strip of state-owned beach that opened two years ago for public recreation. “We’re trying to save thousands of acres of marsh here in this area, where the shrimp lay their eggs, where the fin fish lay their eggs, where the crabs come in and out,” said Chett Chiasson, executive director of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission. “We’re trying to save a heritage, a way of life, a culture that we know here in recreational and commercial fishing.” Crews are laying down tens of thousands of feet of oil absorbent and containment boom along Caminada Pass, at the island’s western tip. The effort aims to keep oil from entering Caminada Bay and the marshes of Lafourche Parish. “Everyone’s hollering for booms because of the shortage,” said Grand Isle Mayor David Camardelle. “Let’s use Grand Isle like a levee system for the oil.” …
