Lawmakers "Insulted" Levees Won't Be Improved

We've seen three Category 5 hurricanes form this season, so why would the federal government spend more than a billion dollars to protect us from only a Category 3 storm? That's the question angry legislators were hurling Monday at the state capitol.

The quickest fix is to simply patch holes and make the levee system what it was before Hurricane Katrina hit. But legislators say that wasn't enough to protect us before -- what makes it different this time?

The latest images out of the flood-soaked Ninth Ward show the devastated area still soggy, still vulnerable. It sends shudders through those at the mercy of the same levee system elsewhere in the state, like Representative Karen St. Germain of Pierre Part.

She says, "We're surrounded in our area by levees. I ride from Morgan City to Iberville Parish, it's a levee, all the way to Ramah, and it's a levee. So how well are we protected? I don't really know."

Transportation Secretary Johnny Bradberry says the state is helping to investigate why the levees broke during Katrina, but it could be they did exactly what they were designed to do -- stand up to a Category 3 or weaker hurricane.

Bradberry told the tranportation committee, of the 208 miles of levees in Louisiana, 27 miles were weakened or breached during Hurricane Katrina. That's 13 percent of our levees.

The Army Corps of Engineers is getting more than a billion dollars to repair those levees by the start of next year's hurricane season on June 1st. But the corps will only rebuild them the way they were, to withstand a Category 3 hurricane.

"Why aren't we working on 5 right now?" demands St. Germain. "Why should that have to be such a major request when it's common sense?!"

Bradberry explains, "Because you're not going to do Cat 5 reconstruction in a year. And so the plan is to bring you back to pre-storm condition. You can do that in a year."

Bradberry says bringing the state's entire 208 miles of levees to Category 5 status would take more like 20 years, and a lot more than a billion dollars. But St. Germain says let's at least get the ball rolling.

"In my eyes, it's an insult to go back to something that we just saw didn't work," she says.

DOTD Secretary Johnny Bradberry heads to Washington D.C. Tuesday to make the case for more money, not just to fortify our levees, but to rebuild and improve our roads. He's asking for $32 billion. That includes money for improvements in Baton Rouge, like widening I-10 and I-12, and creating a commuter rail system between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. But he says convincing Congress these improvements are necessities will be a challenge.

"I think they're sensitive to it. I haven't had any response to say 'we'll give you money' yet, that's what we're looking for. They're listening... it's a matter of what degree they'll appropriate money to the area."

Changes have already been made to adjust to the traffic, but permanent changes are tricky because Baton Rouge is not yet sure how much of the population is permanent.

Flashback

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation% 5Carchive%5C200509%5CNAT20050907a.html

-snip-

In December of 1995, the Orleans Levee Board, the local government entity that oversees the levees and floodgates designed to protect New Orleans and the surrounding areas from rising waters, bragged in a supplement to the Times-Picayune newspaper about federal money received to protect the region from hurricanes.

"In the past four years, the Orleans Levee Board has built up its arsenal. The additional defenses are so critical that Levee Commissioners marched into Congress and brought back almost $60 million to help pay for protection," the pamphlet declared. "The most ambitious flood-fighting plan in generations was drafted. An unprecedented $140 million building campaign launched 41 projects."

The levee board promised Times-Picayune readers that the "few manageable gaps" in the walls protecting the city from Mother Nature's waters "will be sealed within four years (1999) completing our circle of protection."

But less than a year later, that same levee board was denied the authority to refinance its debts. Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle "repeatedly faulted the Levee Board for the way it awards contracts, spends money and ignores public bid laws," according to the Times-Picayune. The newspaper quoted Kyle as saying that the board was near bankruptcy and should not be allowed to refinance any bonds, or issue new ones, until it submitted an acceptable plan to achieve solvency.

Blocked from financing the local portion of the flood fighting efforts, the levee board was unable to spend the federal matching funds that had been designated for the project.

By 1998, Louisiana's state government had a $2 billion construction budget, but less than one tenth of one percent of that -- $1.98 million -- was dedicated to levee improvements in the New Orleans area. State appropriators were able to find $22 million that year to renovate a new home for the Louisiana Supreme Court and $35 million for one phase of an expansion to the New Orleans convention center.

The following year, the state legislature did appropriate $49.5 million for levee improvements, but the proposed spending had to be allocated by the State Bond Commission before the projects could receive financing. The commission placed the levee improvements in the "Priority 5" category, among the projects least likely to receive full or immediate funding.

The Orleans Levee Board was also forced to defer $3.7 million in capital improvement projects in its 2001 budget after residents of the area rejected a proposed tax increase to fund its expanding operations. Long term deferments to nearly 60 projects, based on the revenue shortfall, totaled $47 million worth of work, including projects to shore up the floodwalls.

No new state money had been allocated to the area's hurricane protection projects as of October of 2002, leaving the available 65 percent federal matching funds for such construction untouched.

"The problem is money is real tight in Baton Rouge right now," state Sen. Francis Heitmeier (D-Algiers) told the Times-Picayune. "We have to do with what we can get."

Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Mark Drennen told local officials that, if they reduced their requests for state funding in other, less critical areas, they would have a better chance of getting the requested funds for levee improvements. The newspaper reported that in 2000 and 2001, "the Bond Commission has approved or pledged millions of dollars for projects in Jefferson Parish, including construction of the Tournament Players Club golf course near Westwego, the relocation of Hickory Avenue in Jefferson (Parish) and historic district development in Westwego."

There is no record of such discretionary funding requests being reduced or withdrawn, but in October of 2003, nearby St. Charles Parish did receive a federal grant for $475,000 to build bike paths on top of its levees.

Earlier this year, the levee board did complete a $2.5 million restoration project. After months of delays, officials rolled away fencing to reveal the restored 1962 Mardi Gras fountain in a four-acre park featuring a new 600-foot plaza between famous Lakeshore Drive and the sea wall.

Financing for the renovation came from a property tax passed by New Orleans voters in 1983. The tax, which generates more than $6 million each year for the levee board, is dedicated to capital projects. Levee board officials defended more than $600,000 in cost overruns for the Mardi Gras fountain project, according to the Times-Picayune, "citing their responsibility to maintain the vast green space they have jurisdiction over along the lakefront."

Thanks for the ping.

Karen St. Germain = buckethead.

First move is to fix as much as you can, as quick as you can, before the next storm makes Katrina look like a hurricane party.

Someone should explain to Ms. St. Germain the difference between slowly rising water and wind driven surge. Take along a box of crayons.

Then have her sit down and make a list of priorities, including every single thing that needs to be done to fix whatever Katrina broke. She may need a second box of crayons.

Then when she has a comprehensive list, she can put them in some sort of order. If she manages all that, there's at least the theoretical possibility that she could then get to work accomplishing something with an overall set of coherent objectives in mind, instead of blindly flailing at whatever happens to capture her short attention span on any given day.

If Cat-5 levees fit somewhere into that overall, well reasoned, realistically funded plan, we'll talk.

I feel for you LAW3, the crosses you bear by dint of residency amongst paramecium are a heavy burden.

Related story...
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL102405picture.27068e.html

Awesome pictures document levee breach that flooded St. Bernard, N.O. East

The stunning picture shows the gigantic storm surge from Hurricane Katrina as it broke over a levee in eastern New Orleans. The anonymous photo was posted on the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation's website.

But mystery surrounded the photo for some time and it was hard to figure out where the picture came from and who shot it.

Don McClosky, the manager of Entergy's Michoud power plant next to the I-510 Bridge over the Intracoastal Canal, rode out Katrina at the plant, which is where he snapped the picture of the powerful storm surge.

"There were waves up on top of that, that were probably 15 to 18 foot on top of what you saw form the hurricane protection levee that was out there," he said.

In a home video made by a worker at the power plant, you can hear Katrina's winds screaming through the power plant. McClosky and his crew watched as the levee reached the limits of its protection and water began pouring in. Eventually Katrina dumped between five and eight feet of water inside the power plant. Every vehicle parked nearby was flooded.

On the tape you can hear McClosky talk to his employees about moving higher as the water rose about a foot every ten minutes.

The hurricane protection levee and the floodwall on top of it were no match for Katrina's storm surge. During the peak of the storm, water was pushed up the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet and over the top of a concrete wall.

"As the water fell, it scoured out a deep trench on the back side of the levee," said McClosky.

As the water poured in, McClosky said he was thinking about people in eastern New Orleans and St. Bernard who didn't have the elevation or the protection he had at the Entergy station

"You can assume that if you have that water rising here at that rate, it's spreading out and there are a lot of folks having this same type of issue with the water."

Now those neighborhoods are in ruins. Barges are tossed over the canal levees and Don McClosky has the pictures that show how it all happened.

This photo shows water racing over the levee near the St. Bernard Parish/New Orleans East area.

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