[StBernard] St. Bernard makes plans for rebuilding, protection

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard makes plans for rebuilding, protection

Tuesday, February 21, 2006 

By Karen Turni Bazile

St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau 

For four hours Monday, a committee of volunteers charged with advising the
St. Bernard Parish Council on how to rebuild the parish laid out a $2
billion plan to repair infrastructure, improve coastal protection and foster
economic development. 

But in presenting its report to the council, the Citizens Recovery Committee
left unanswered the question that lured many among the more than 100
residents in attendance: Which neighborhoods -- if any -- should not be
rebuilt in a parish where Katrina's surge flooded homes all the way to the
gutters? 

Committee members said that determination should be made once FEMA releases
new flood-elevation maps next month, and some council members said they
intend to name areas where homes should not be rebuilt. But the prospect of
a longer wait did not please some residents seeking guidance Monday. 

"I am in limbo," Meraux resident Sandra Ludwig shouted during the meeting.
She is living with her family in a trailer in front of her flooded home on
Maureen Lane, and said she is waiting to see whether the government will buy
her property or she should rebuild. "A lot of people don't know what to do,"
she said. "I want to feel safe. We are concerned about our children and our
grandchildren." 

Others expressed similar frustration as the committee, which has been
working since November, gave the council a wish list of projects to reshape
the parish, from a long-proposed four-lane highway along the 40-Arpent Canal
to a senior citizens housing complex near a new hospital and medical office.


The plan will be discussed at three other public meetings this week,
including one today, and council members are likely to make changes before
approving it and submitting it to the state. 

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge David Gorbaty, the committee's
co-chairman, said it would not be right for the group to make suggestions
about buyouts without the elevation recommendations due in mid-March from
the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 

"We can't (recommend)," he said after the meeting. "We have no back-up
information." 

But Councilman Craig Taffaro said FEMA first said the new flood maps would
be delivered four months ago and the documents may still not come next
month. Meanwhile, people are waiting for decisions and Taffaro said the
council should move forward and make them. Taffaro said those flood
elevations would not be binding for 18 months to two years, meaning anyone
can rebuild any property in the meantime to current flood elevations. 

While the committee didn't make specific recommendations about flood-prone
neighborhoods, committee member Cliff Reuther said residents living north of
Judge Perez Drive should consider relocating closer to the Mississippi
River, where the land is much higher. 

The council must approve the projects presented by the committee by March 7,
so a final report can be sent to the Louisiana Recovery Authority later in
March. Gov. Kathleen Blanco has asked each devastated parish to devise its
own recovery plan so the state agency can incorporate local wishes into a
statewide plan to be used to disburse federal money. 

In general, the committee on Monday recommended that the parish use its Home
Mortgage Authority to receive federal grants to buy out destroyed homes or
provide low-interest mortgages for repairs and new house construction. 

The committee also suggested the parish seek funding to buy out properties
and create a nonresidential buffer near the parish's two oil refineries,
which are now surrounded by residential neighborhoods. More than 1,600 homes
in Chalmette were affected by an oil spill from the Murphy Oil refinery
after Hurricane Katrina. 

Committee member Don Duplantier said the parish should also push for a
series of barriers to the east of the parish to break storm surges and
protect homes from catastrophic flooding. Among them, the committee proposed
raising the levee at the 40-Arpent Canal to 17 feet, the same height as the
levee on the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet. It also suggested armoring the
channel's levee with concrete, repairing wetlands and building a 20-foot
storm surge barrier across Lake Borgne. 

"These are not pie-in-the-sky things," Duplantier said. "They can be done"
in two to five years. 

Gorbaty said the parish and metropolitan area must protect itself by
creating barriers. 

"How St. Bernard goes is how New Orleans goes," he said. "This is the best
opportunity we have for people to support these projects. They have to
understand this is for everybody's protection, not just St. Bernard's
protection." 

Some of the projects in the report include long-proposed ideas suggested for
the parish's pre-Katrina population of 67,000. But even the most optimistic
estimates put the parish's population at 50 percent to 75 percent of that
number by 2010. Councilman Mark Madary said some ideas, such as the
four-lane Florida Avenue roadway, are not needed in a parish with a reduced
population. 

The committee will make an abbreviated presentation today at 11 a.m. during
the council meeting at a tent behind the government complex in Chalmette to
allow for public comment. Full presentations and public hearings are
scheduled for Thursday and Saturday. 

. . . . . . . 

Staff writer Karen Turni Bazile can be reached at kturni at timespicayune.com
or (504) 352-2539.