ST. MARTIN- The governor, surrounded by public officials, looked at the work being done to hold back the water on Hwy 70 in St. Martin parish Saturday afternoon.

As walls of huge sandbags are being installed to stop the backwater, the Governor says the barge will sink in Bayou Chene next week and the gates will open at the Morganza spillway.

But whats' being done here is just a temporary fix, officials say a permanent barge structure needs to be placed in Bayou Chene and this stretch of Hwy 70 needs to be elevated.

State Senator Rick Ward represents this district and says that this is a low lying area of Hwy 70.

The high water is also coming into a residential neighbor in nearby Stephenville which is flooding several homes and threatening a lot more.

This area has been blocked off to all but people who live here. Water has come into several of the homes and it's been declared as a local emergency disaster.

Tommy Dickerson lives in the area and says that if the water remains under two inches they will try to keep it out of their property with sand.