[StBernard] Hiz honor da Mayor pretty happy with levee news...

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Sat Apr 1 22:29:06 EST 2006



Nagin: New levee revelations good news for most of New Orleans

Mayor Ray Nagin said he was encouraged by new revelations about additional
money needed to upgrade levees, noting that the overwhelming majority of
areas in question lie outside city limits.

Don Powell, who is overseeing Gulf Coast reconstruction for the Bush
Administration, said this week that an additional $6 billion of work will be
needed to raise and strengthen levees to the point that the Federal
Emergency Management Agency would be willing to certify them.

Without certification, levees are ignored in the drafting of flood maps that
determine how high buildings must be raised to qualify for flood insurance.
The practical effect would be that homes or businesses in some areas where
levees are not certified may have to be raised 25 feet or more off the
ground in order to qualify for federal flood insurance.

But a detailed breakdown shows that no additional money over the $3.5
billion already approved for flood protection work will be needed for levees
protecting parts of New Orleans on the east bank of the Mississippi River
and west of the Industrial Canal. That area includes downtown, the French
Quarter and the Garden District as well as many areas near Lake
Pontchartrain and in the center of the city that flooded during Katrina.

"For people in New Orleans, it's really not that big of an issue," Nagin
said Friday. "The core of the City of New Orleans is in great shape."

About $129 million dollars will be needed for levees in the city's Algiers
section across the river from downtown -- an amount Nagin called "a drop in
the bucket."

However, he acknowledged that he has more to do in trying to secure
additional money for levees in eastern New Orleans and the Lower Ninth Ward.


The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says current work to be completed this
summer will make all levees stronger than before Katrina hit, but FEMA now
wants even more improvements because of new data about coastal wetlands
loss, sinking land and increased hurricane strength.

New Department of Homeland Security maps indicate an additional $3 billion
dollars in work would be enough to certify levees protecting 98 percent of
homes in the metro area, including all of New Orleans as well as Jefferson,
St. Charles and St. Bernard Parishes. About $3 billion dollars more would be
required for low-lying parts of Plaquemines Parish where about 2 percent of
metro-area homes stand.

Nagin said that breakdown seemed to be a message from the federal government
to the state that hard decisions need to be made about whether to spend
billions of additional dollars to protect relatively few homes.

"What they really are saying, is ... certain sections of the city are OK,
others we have more work to do and other areas, we're not sure whether the
investment makes sense," Nagin said. Nagin said he would lobby hard on
behalf of the entire metro area, but cautioned that state leaders may be
faced with the tough task of prioritizing levee upgrades if the Bush
Administration and Congress resist paying the entire $6 billion.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco has called the shortfall for levee certification "an
outrage" and says the federal government should provide all of the money.
Louisiana's congressional delegation has echoed those sentiments.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-New Orleans, said the situation further underlines the
need for the federal government to give Louisiana a greater share of
royalties from oil and gas produced off the state's coast.

It "presents the President with another opportunity to step up to the plate
and to do what it takes to help us rebuild," Landrieu said.




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