Public CoE hurricane levee meetings

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CoE) will hold two public meetings April 30 in Algiers and Uptown New Orleans to discuss what to include in congressional-approved studies aimed at determining how to keep hurricane levees high enough to reduce risk of flooding from storm-water surges created by 100-year storms, which have a 1 percent chance of occurring in any year. The studies are aimed at determining needed improvements to the hurricane levee systems to assure continued surge-protection in 2023. Initial CoE research indicated the levees may be lower than the 100-year levels of 2023 because of sinking soils beneath levee segments, and the potential of sea levels rising caused, in part, by global warming. Also, the availability of National Flood Insurance within these levees is in part based on the ability of them to provide protection from potential 100-year surges. The levees must be certified as meeting the flood insurance program standards in 2023. If the studies conclude the improvements are feasible and justified, the U.S. government would pay 75 percent. The other 25 percent would be paid by the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, and may even fall to East Bank and West Bank levee authorities, which already pay the cost of interim levee lifts through taxes. The meetings are aimed at gathering information from stakeholders and the public early in the study process, with more public meetings and open houses to be held later. The Algiers meeting about proposed improvements to West Bank and vicinity levee projects is from 2-3:30 p.m. at the Cut-Off Recreational Center. The meeting about changes to the east bank of Lake Pontchartrain and vicinity levee projects is from 6-7:30 p.m. at the corps’ New Orleans District headquarters. (Source: NOLA.com 04/28/19)