Storm surge barrier meeting

A local resident is raising public awareness for his plan to combat storm surge along the Mississippi Coast.

Diamondhead resident Lee Taylor knows firsthand the damage storm surge can do to coastal areas. He moved to the area a few months after Hurricane Katrina and lent a hand by flying Habitat for Humanity volunteers, allowing him a bird’s eye view of the damage done.  “It also became very obvious that all of that water, 99 percent of that water, had come in through the open mouths of those bays.”

That’s when Taylor got to work searching for a way to mitigate future storm surge threats that is uniquely suited for Bay St. Louis and Biloxi Bay. “You cannot build a standard storm surge barrier across the mouths of those bays. They are very wide, they’re also very shallow.”

The ‘Taylor Storm Surge Barrier’ is a proposal that would put a series of culverts with storm gates connected by man-made islands near the Coast’s two major bays.

During times of storm surge, the incoming water would close the gates into a ‘v’ shape to break up the large waves. Taylor says this solution can be cost-effective as well. “Those gate systems are nature controlled, they’re nature powered, they’re nature operated, and they’re nature timed. Man has nothing to do with it except building them to start with it.

Taylor already applied for BP oil spill monies to fund the project and estimates each barrier may cost around $80 million.

For now, the goal is to raise public awareness for the proposal and capture the attention of local leaders by holding informational meetings. “The general public are the people that have to make this happen. The authorities will not do anything until you, the general public, tells those authorities we want these barriers built.”