Located 55 miles southwest of New Orleans, the Louisiana parishes of Terrebonne and Lafourche are the workhorses of Louisiana’s “Energy Coast.”  In the cities of Houma and Thibodaux, and along bayou communities like Leeville and Chauvin, the men and women of this “Bayou Region” work 24/7 to provide this nation with oil and gas that fuels the nation and seafood that feeds the world. And it is our infrastructure and coastal landscape that bear the burden of that activity.

•  Port Fourchon in Lafourche Parish services 75 percent of all deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Up to 18 percent of America’s total energy supply is supported by Port Fourchon.
•  Two-lane Louisiana Highway 1 is the only road connecting Port Fourchon to the rest of the country, and the only evacuation route for thousands of residents and oil and gas industry employees. This vulnerable highway is often threatened to become impassable as a result of tropical systems and high tides. 
•  The Barataria-Terrebonne Estuary, which includes Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, is the most rapidly eroding estuary on the planet. We lose a football field of coastal wetlands every 30 minutes.
•  Houma, the parish seat of Terrebonne Parish, lies less than 35 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, and yet this parish of over 100,000 people is without a federally funded hurricane protection system.
•  The South Lafourche Hurricane Protection System continues be threatened by storm surges from passing tropical systems and is need of a height increase to protect the people and public infrastructure of this region.
•  The Bayou Region lacks a north-south hurricane evacuation route with access to an interstate for efficient evacuation of our nearly 200,000 residents and workers.

Protecting this valuable American real estate is paramount to preserving America’s Access to Energy. 

Bayou Region members of the New Orleans-based Women of the Storm organization call on our U.S. Congress to address the hurricane protection, coastal restoration and infrastructure funding needs of Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes:

1. LA 1 Highway Improvement Project
2. Morganza-to-the-Gulf Hurricane Protection System
3. South Lafourche Hurricane Protectionm System Improvements
4. Long-term, Comprehensive Restoration of the Barataria-Terrebonne Estuary
5. North-South Hurricane Evacuation Route to 1-10
6. Mississippi River Reintroduction into Bayou Lafourche

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