The problem wasn't the lack of Federal $$, it was that flood control has been a lower priority list for the State's elected officials in DC than other items such as the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway, which cost the taxpayers $hundreds of millions.
Here are some examples of Louisiana's Federal largesse not spent on flood control:
Best of the Pig Book Saturday, May 14, 2005 Perhaps the most frustrating of all pork projects are the re-occurring programs that receive more money every year and never fulfill their stated purpose. In 1991, Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.) grabbed $92.6 million — as he was facing a tough reelection — for two more locks for the Red River Waterway (RRW) in Shreveport, Louisiana. While the administration did request funds for RRW in its budget, the project was supposed to end well before Shreveport. But Sen. Johnston made sure the RRW didn’t stop in Louisiana; tax dollars overflowed into just about every state in which the river runs. Dams, corridors, chloride control plants, and emergency bank protections have all been added to the total of $115.5 million spent on the project. The RRW connects the Mississippi to the Red River. According the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the “economic benefits from the bank stabilization along this project are estimated at over $38 million annually.” Not surprisingly, the waterway has never justified the enormous amount of federal funding it received. In 1997, only 4 percent of the projected commercial traffic meandered through the RRW. In 2003, the Army Corps said the construction costs would not be justified until 2046. Incidentally, the RRW was renamed as the “J. Bennett Johnston Waterway” in 2001.
2005 Congressional Pig Book Summary
A January 9, 2000 Washington Post article stated that the waterway "still carries less than 0.1 percent of the commercial traffic on America's government-run river transport system — even though it receives a remarkable 3.4 percent of the system's federal funds." In 2003, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the $2 billion worth of construction costs won’t be justified until 2046); $2,000,000 for a sugar-based ethanol biorefinery at Louisiana State University; and $500,000 for Livingston Parish alternative fuel plant construction.
June 30, 2005
Celebrating Fat Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday… Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee member Mary Landrieu (D-La.) grabbed $81.4 million for the Pelican State, including: $16.6 million for the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway (which received $11.5 million in fiscal 2005); $1.3 million for Barataria Bay; and $500,000 for the Louisiana Immersive Tech Enterprise Program at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.
I found one item on the New Orleans City budget that included over a 100 Million Federal dollars for improvement to the trolleys on Canal Street.
Lots of good info in that post. Doesn't surprise me that the needed funding was misspent or mishandled.