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Terrebonne’s top 10 stories of 2020

December 31, 2020
in oil jobs
Terrebonne’s top 10 stories of 2020
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Keith Magill
 
| The Courier

Here is The Courier’s ranking of this year’s top news stories in Terrebonne Parish.

1. COVID-19 pandemic

The global coronavirus pandemic hit Terrebonne Parish in March, wreaking havoc on every facet of life. By year’s end, the parish had recorded more than 5,900 COVID-19 infections and 148 deaths.

State orders aimed at curbing the virus’s spread restricted business and social activity. Orders mandated face masks for anyone in public and encouraged residents to stay at least six feet away from others and wash their hands regularly. Schools offered a mix of online-only and in-person classes and limited class sizes on campus. 

Houma-Thibodaux lost 5,800 jobs in April, the first full month of the state’s COVID stay-at-home order. Business closures and layoffs helped elevate the area’s unemployment rate to 12.3%, its highest since the late-1980s oil bust. The area regained most of those jobs by year’s end, but the November total was still down 2,000 from a year earlier. Long lines became common at area food banks.

Almost every local festival canceled amid state crowd restrictions. Officials postponed 2021’s Mardi Gras parades in hopes they can roll later in the year.

Hope arrived in December as hospital workers got the first round of COVID vaccines. But officials say it will take months to roll them out to enough residents to reach the herd immunity it will take to return to some semblance of normalcy.

2. Record hurricane season

A record five hurricanes struck Louisiana during the six-month season that ended Nov. 30, and two others threatened. 

For Terrebonne, the worst was Zeta, a Category 2 hurricane that made landfall Oct. 28 in Cocodrie. It damaged or destroyed dozens of homes and fishing camps in that area. At its peak, Zeta left about 20,000 homes and businesses across Terrebonne without power, most for a couple of days but some for longer. 

None of the storms caused widespread flooding or property damage in the parish, and that may be the biggest takeaway from such a busy season.

Officials credited Terrebonne’s $500 million Morganza levee system with holding back 4-6 feet of floodwater from hurricanes Laura and Delta, which devastated the Lake Charles area. Hurricane Rita, which 15 years earlier followed a path similar to Laura’s, flooded about 10,000 homes in Terrebonne before the levees, now 12 feet high, were built.  

“Years ago we were kind of envious of south Lafourche because they had a completed levee system and would get back to normal almost immediately after a storm,” Terrebonne Levee Director Reggie Dupre said after Hurricane Laura. “We’re there now. People were eating at restaurants down the bayous yesterday. The stores were open and people didn’t have to evacuate. That’s a huge testament.”

3. Oilfield struggles continue

Houma-Thibodaux was just beginning to recover from an oil bust that started in 2014, stripping an estimated 25,000 jobs from the area, when the COVID pandemic hit. Global demand for oil plummeted along with Gulf drilling.

The result was more layoffs and bankruptcies for the local offshore-oil based economy.

Industry efforts to win severance tax relief and an end to coastal lawsuits failed to win approval from a financially strapped Louisiana Legislature. Industry advocates also failed to persuade the federal government to lower the price, or royalty rate, it charges companies to drill in the Gulf.

Local service companies continued to diversify so they are less reliant on the ups and downs of the offshore oil industry, some building wind farm components, military ships and research vessels. 

Economist Loren Scott told local business people in September the industry’s future depends, in part, on whether President-elect Joe Biden follows through on a campaign pledge to end new drilling in federal land and waters, including the Gulf, to fight climate change. Scott said the impact would amount to a “train wreck” for Houma-Thibodaux’s economy.   

4. Elections

The presidential race dominated the fall elections. As expected, President Donald Trump received 74% of the vote in mostly conservative Terrebonne. 

Trump contends Democrat Joe Biden’s win is the result of widespread voter fraud, though numerous court rulings found no evidence of such claims. Debate continues among voters on both sides locally and across the nation.

Among local races, Terrebonne elected two new judges. Former First Assistant District Attorney Jason Dagate replaces retiring Judge Johnny Walker, who had served 25 years. Houma attorney Timothy Ellender Jr. replaces Judge George Larke, who retired after 18 years on the bench.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Jerry Larpenter retired after serving 21 years at the post. He was replaced July 1 by retired Marine and veteran law-enforcement officer Tim Soignet, who was elected in fall 2019.

5.  Minority judgeship rejected

A federal appeals court in June rejected a U.S. district judge’s 2017 ruling that had ordered Terrebonne to create a minority judge district.

The Terrebonne Parish NAACP sued the state in 2014 in an effort to create a minority voting district for at least one of the parish’s five judge seats. Following an eight-day trial, the late U.S. District Judge James Brady of Baton Rouge ruled in favor of the NAACP.

Brady said Terrebonne’s parishwide voting system violates the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution by depriving Black voters of equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. The NACCP noted that no Black candidate had ever won a race for parishwide office in Terrebonne when running against a white person.

But the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling, saying Brady “erred in holding that weak evidence of vote dilution could overcome the state’s substantial interest in linking judicial positions to the judges’ parishwide jurisdiction.”

Attorneys for the NAACP said they are contemplating their next move.

6.  Gang crackdown 

Ten suspected gang members were arrested in early December in connection with a series of Houma shootings. 

The newly formed Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office Gang Investigation Team launched the investigation following a fatal shooting at a Houma Sonic drive-in July 19, Sheriff Tim Soignet said at a Dec. 10 news conference. 

At least two other suspects are being sought in the crackdown.

“I want to send a message to any of these young men that there’s nothing glamorous about gang activity when you get involved in killing people and taking human life,” Soignet said. “Dealing drugs and doing the things you’re doing, it’s not going to end well for you.”

7. George Floyd protest, response

A three-hour peaceful protest in Houma followed national outrage over the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.

Nearly 70 protesters held signs and chanted as cars passed by the Terrebonne Courthouse Square on May 31, six days after Floyd’s death. 

Floyd, a Black man, died after Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis Police officer, kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The incident was captured on video and sparked widespread protests and riots across the U.S. and around the globe. Chauvin awaits trial on charges of second-degree unintentional murder and manslaughter.

In Houma, organizers worked with authorities to ensure the protest remained peaceful. Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter, then-Sheriff-elect Tim Soignet and Houma Police Chief Dana Coleman attended. In later interviews, Larpenter and Coleman condemned the Minnesota officer’s actions against Floyd.

“It’s good to see white, Black, you know, different people of different races coming out here because they have friends and family members who say, ‘You know what? We can’t take this anymore,’ “ said one of the Houma protesters, Travion Smith. “If no one shakes you out of your status quo, you’ll never ever challenge the system.”

Floyd’s death was also cited as a catalyst for the creation of the Terrebonne Parish Diversity and Inclusion Task Force.

“This board is designed to come together as people in the community to make the parish more inclusive,” Parish Councilman John Navy said as he presided over the task force’s first meeting in July. “We’re not saying Terrebonne is not inclusive, but everything will be improved upon. This will be a very unique and historical task force.”

8. Nicholls removes Confederate names from buildings

Nicholls State University in Thibodaux removed Confederate names from several buildings in a diversity initiative that started more than a year earlier. 

Nicholls President Jay Clune announced in June that the school would immediately remove the names from P.G.T. Beauregard Hall and Leonidas K. Polk Hall, now called the College of Science and Technology and the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, respectively. The university also removed most of its campus street signs — all of which were named after a Louisiana plantation or plantation owner.

Clune credited Black students on campus and the Black Student Union for pushing this 20-year-old debate to his desk.

In 2019, Nicholls’ Diversity and Inclusion Task Force released a draft diversity action plan that includes a recommendation to rename all buildings and streets with controversial ties — Francis T. Nicholls included. Nicholls was a Confederate general before serving as a two-term Louisiana governor and later a state Supreme Court justice.

Southern schools’ history textbooks: A long history of deception, and what the future holds

Stripping the university of its namesake, however, remains off the table. It largely comes down to a brand issue, Clune said, adding that when people say “Nicholls,” they think of the school, not the person.

“Some of the most prestigious schools in the country are named after slaveholders or Confederates,” Clune said. “They are some of the most progressive universities in terms of changing the names of colleges but have not addressed the brand. Because the brand transcends the individual. Would I prefer that our name was not that of a Confederate general and a slaveholder? Absolutely.”

9. Dentist dies in plane crash

Family, friends and colleagues mourned the loss of a Houma dentist who died tragically in a plane crash Oct. 16.

A small plane went down in Terrebonne near Lake Hatch and claimed the lives of Dr. Jan Marie Villemarette, 48, and pilot Omar Fouad El-Aazami, 54.  

Those who knew Villemarette said the community lost more than a skilled dentist who had passion for her work and to help others. 

“Jan was a very close colleague of mine, but, most importantly, she was a dear friend that will be truly missed,” said Houma orthodontist Dr. Albert Ellender. “She was a fantastic mother, and her two daughters were her life. She loved being with them and watching them grow. Jan was a wonderful dentist. She loved her patients and always made them feel special. Our community has experienced a tremendous loss.” 

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash’s cause.

10. Key flood-protection project advances

Construction is set to begin this year on a major flood-protection lock in the Houma Navigation Canal. 

The $366 million lock serves as the linchpin to Terrebonne’s Morganza hurricane-protection system and aims to protect Houma and other inland communities from Gulf of Mexico storm surges. 

The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority said in December that it is paying for the project using an alternative financing plan approved by the state Legislature earlier last year. The plan allows the agency to borrow money or issue bonds to pay for flood-protection projects.

That means the project can be completed years earlier than if the state had to wait for the BP oil spill fines that will pay for the project. The Terrebonne Levee District expects to complete the lock in May 2024.



www.houmatoday.com

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