One only has to look to the east and west at our neighbors who reside outside of our hurricane protection levee to appreciate the vision of our community leaders when the idea of a hurricane levee was born.  

The concept was a joint effort of industry, business owners, home owners and government. For all practical purposes, until Ike the system had never been tested. Ike put the system to a major test. The levee passed with flying colors.  

The one person most responsible for bringing the idea to fruition was our Yellow Dog Liberal Democratic  Congressman, Jack Brooks.  

Brooks  wrote the legislation creating the system, shepherded the bill through Congress, fought for the funding, and constantly prodded the Crops of Engineers to get the job done. All of us who did not flood owe Jack a big thank you.  

Also, a big thanks should go to the dedicated men and women of Jefferson County Drainage District 7 (the agency assigned the task of operating the system from its inception). Their year- round conscientious vigil, inspections testing, and maintenance successfully held back a catastrophic storm surge that would have inundated all of South Jefferson County. 

Burt Lee

Port Arthur