'Sad Amount of Damage': Hurricane Ida Leaves Wreckage at Houma-Terrebonne Airport

Sep. 8—Terrebonne and Lafourche experienced widespread damage from Hurricane Ida, and the Houma-Terrebonne Airport was no exception.

"Unfortunately, there was major damage to the hangars," Airport Director Mert Pellegrin said. "Some of that damage resulted in the destruction of some airplanes. There was one hangar that had about five to seven airplanes that will probably never fly again. One hangar was flattened and four to five others have major damage."

Though some structures at the 1,813-acre airport sustained major damage, the runways themselves are up and running, Pellegrin said.

"They were able to open the runways on (Aug. 30)," he said. "We were able to verify there wasn't much debris on them and what debris there was was able to be picked up. The runways have been receiving large amounts of traffic ever since. The control tower is another story."

Because the control tower was knocked out of commission, pilots have been flying in and out of the airport using their own skills, Pellegrin said.

"It's not mandatory that the tower be in operation for aircraft to transit here," he said. "The airport has been operating under a non-controlled basis, which basically means the pilots follow certain protocols to advise of their positions and basically control themselves."

Volunteer pilot Scott Humphries of Houston delivered supplies at the Houma airport two days after Ida tore through the area.

"Houma looked like a war zone, including the airport," he said. "There was debris everywhere, no radar or weather info, an inoperative control tower, no air traffic control, Army and Coast Guard choppers buzzing everywhere. But the cheerful Houma volunteers were delighted to get some instant relief."

About 65,000 flights, many of them helicopters heading to and from Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms, come in and out of the airport every year, Pellegrin said.

"Hangars will need wall replacements, roof replacements, all those things," he said. "However, the main service organizations at the airport that sell fuel and everything have managed to get their fuel systems back up and are pumping fuel and are providing limited services. I will not count on putting visiting airplanes inside these hangars until some of them get repaired."

Pellegrin said it will be some time before the airport returns to normal.

"I was born and raised in Houma, and this is certainly the most significant storm that has affected this airport," he said. "There is a sad amount of damage."

— Staff Writer Dan Copp can be reached at 448-7639 or at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @DanVCopp.

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