A massive traffic snarl along Texas 82 leading to and from Cameron, Louisiana via Pleasure Island’s Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge is slowly becoming better as officials in our neighboring state opened U.S. 190.

“Traffic is much better today (Thursday),” Port Arthur Police Chief Mark Blanton said. “Louisiana has discouraged the use of some roads and Interstate 190 (in Louisiana) has opened up and traffic is using that as well.”

PAPD has three officers stationed along the heavily congested Texas 82 keeping traffic lights flowing and traffic moving.

Eighteen-wheelers, which normally transit Interstate 10’s multiple lanes are now moving along the two lane road to and from Louisiana in some cases.

“It was adversely affecting us and we had had one fatality. It appears the traffic situation has improved. Traffic to and from Louisiana is lighter than it was Wednesday,” he said.

In addition to the regular traffic traveling to work across the causeway Bridge at the state line there are also people driving form Houston that are now using the road through Pleasure Island.

“We are manipulating the traffic flow the best we can but it backs up quite a bit,” he said. “When 18-wheelers stop for traffic it takes them a while to get back up to speed. We’re working on it and right now it seems to be flowing smooth.”

Flooding in nearby Orange County has gone down very little since the Sabine River reached a high level of 7.6 feet around midnight Wednesday, and is expected to stay near the same levels throughout the next couple of days.

“Now it is beginning to fall ever so slightly, but it is still very near the crest. We are not expecting it to fall off much over the next 24 hours,” Donald Jones, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Lake Charles office, said.

Jones said NWS data indicates it will be Saturday before the floodwaters begin to recede to any significance.

Tuesday’s flooding was record breaking in areas north of Interstate 10, while areas in the south had seen higher levels during Hurricane Ike.

According to Jones, the Sabine crested at a level of 9.86 during Ike.

Flood stage for the river is 4 feet.

A forecast of scattered rainstorms over the region Friday and Saturday should not have much affect on the current flooding, Jones said

In the meantime, while the flood waters are receding at a slow pace, much of I-10 east and west of the Louisiana/Texas state line remains closed.

Jones said the NWS anticipates the water will be off the roads sometime late Saturday or early Sunday.

Texas state officials have indicated once the water is completely off the interstate, it will have to be checked for stability before it is re-opened.

Blanton said he did not expect the flooding in Orange County and related road closures to lead to the heavy use of Texas 82. Drivers were initially advised to travel north in order to reach Louisiana but due to the distance to Marshall, Texas, many motorists decided to cut through Texas 82 instead.

Wednesday’s traffic snafu was exacerbated and a portion of the bridge traffic shut down as police dealt with a man who was contemplating suicide by jumping from the bridge. Traffic was backed up well past the state line into Johnson Bayou for a short time, he added.

“We encourage people, if you don’t need to travel the road, don’t,” he said.
“We have high fluctuations of traffic and it’s a narrow road. We prefer people not utilize it if at all possible.