Boothville News

De'Jon Smith, a senior at Humble High School in Humble, Texas, and a resident of Belle Chasse until 2006, has completed the Army National Guard's Basic Combat training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, and graduated there in September as an ammunition specialist.

When Hurricane Katrina destroyed 10 small community centers in Plaquemines Parish , it would have been simple for parish officials to collect more than $30 million from FEMA and rebuild things the way they had always been.

As the Coast Guard considers closing the rain-swollen Mississippi River to deep-draft cargo shipping from Baton Rouge to Boothville, many in the local maritime industry are taking extra precautions in the meantime to navigate through the usually high water levels.

The National Weather Service has issued a pair of tornado warnings for central and southern Plaquemines Parish until 3 p.m. At 2:28 p.m., meteorologists detected a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado 6 miles south of Empire, or 13 miles southeast of Port Sulphur, moving east at 20 mph.

In a move that could cause a major disruption to the American economy, the Coast Guard is considering closing the Mississippi River to deep-draft shipping from Baton Rouge to Boothville when the surging river reaches 18 feet at the Carrollton Gauge in New Orleans, Captain of the Port Edwin Stanton said Wednesday.