ASSUMPTION PARISH - The Assumption Parish Sheriff's Office has announced the purchase of a sandbagging machine to help residents in the parish combat flooding.

Residents have been dealing with high water lately following recent storms that hit the area earlier this month. Pierre Part Elementary went as far as to end its school year early due to the threat of high water in the parish.

“In the past as well as the current flooding event, I have had to borrow machines from the State to bag sand," said Sheriff Leland Falcon. "That leaves us in a precarious position as those machines are needed by many agencies in many areas. I can now say; we have our own sand bagging machine."

Several years ago, the St. Mary Levee District put a temporary barge in place along Bayou Chene to keep back water flooding out of the low lying parishes when the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya get too high, but that isn't the case today.

"Unfortunately, it's too late to implement the barge project, you have to be prepared and it takes months," said John Boudreaux with Emergency and Preparedness for Assumption Parish.

In the works is a Bayou Chene flood gate project. This will do the work that the barge once did, but that project won't be complete until 2022.