Impact of Hurricane Audrey on marsh grass, erosion
Allen Ensminger by Don Davis and Carl Brasseaux, 2009; 4700.2036
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Marsh die-back observed in Terrebonne Basin, LA. USGS.
TEMPESTS: Storms in the Archives
Allen Ensminger: Hurricane Audrey in 1957 came through this country and overnight we had big open water areas where the dead saw grass had been swept off. And some technical papers showed up that the storms scoured it out. Hell, it was dead and was just sitting there waiting for something to transport it, which Audrey did. But today we can't possibly restore these marshes out here without getting the water off of the surface. Over the length of time that has occurred since Hurricane Audrey in '57 and today, we've had millions of tons silt . . . of detrital material, or old decomposed marsh material floated out of here with outgoing tides. So, to get a surface out there where plants can grow again is either through mechanical dredging and fill, or through some kind of a massive drawdown of water out of these areas through pumping or gravity draining. Well, you get into that, you're talking about huge, huge amounts of money to get the stage to be able to grow grass again. Well what are you going to get out of that grass you grow? You can't graze cows out in there, you can't sell grass seed for human food except wheat and corn and some of those . . . Well, that ain't going to grow out here. So there's no economic incentive or need to try and rebuild these marshes except for storm protection.