June 30
June 30, 2009
Elsie Rhodes Theriot Andrews
July 2, 2009The 90-day clock is ticking for the Lafourche Parish Government to appeal the discrepancies in the newly-issued Preliminary Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps and offer a solution to the federal agency that issue the maps.
Parish President Charlotte Randolph said the parish government received its 90-day notice via certified mail last week. The countdown starts on July 3 and ends Sept. 30.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency administers the National Flood Insurance Program, which designed the Flood Insurance Rate Maps. According to FEMA, the maps delineate flood-risk zones and serve a key role in the defense against flood losses on a personal, parish and national level.
FEMA officials say the new maps give local lawmakers and community planners and builders the tools to make important determinations about where and how new structures and developments will be built to maximize safety.
The digital maps will replace the outdated ones, giving residents a new view of the information. FEMA believes the new maps will help residents and business owners understand their current flood risks and help them make more informed decisions about protecting their property.
However, many local governments see the new maps as an incorrect representation of their parish, which is the cause for the appeals.
Lafourche Parish joined several other parishes in a protest against the flood maps earlier this year. The parish hired Baton Rouge-based Shaw Group, Angellete-Picciola, Woods Hole Group and Drs. Joseph Suhayda and Roy Dokka to draft the appeal.
The group was charged with conducting its own field study of the parish levee system. Randolph said one of the main reasons Lafourche is appealing the maps is because FEMA does not recognize the South Lafourche Levee System, a structure that has protected Lafourche Parish for nearly 45 years.
“There is no reason for FEMA to make the assumption that the South Lafourche Levee System is not up to par,” she said.
The last time the levee system was overtopped was during Hurricane Juan in 1985. The parish has spent more than $120 million on the system and the South Lafourche Levee District, headed by Windell Curole, continues to make improvements.
FEMA, however, asserts that the levee system is below the elevation standard based on the new 100-year hurricane protection model. The proposed maps require that new homeowners and businesses inside the levee system build at the same height as those outside of the levee.
In some cases, Randolph said, structures would be elevated 14 to 16 feet above sea level.
At last week’s parish council meeting, Shaw Group’s Lou Cutrera and Suhayda gave the parish an update on the phase one findings. Cutrera said their work indicates FEMA’s data is on a large scale, which has a tendency to be inaccurate.
“In some instances, they (DFIRMS) show levees where there aren’t any levees,” Suhayda said. “In other places where they indicate levees, they’re at the wrong height. There is a substantial amount of information missing from the modeling.”
Cutrera said the group would know more at its June 30 meeting with the Corps of Engineers and Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“We want to know all that we can,” he said, “because when we tell FEMA they are wrong, we want the facts to be there to prove it. We have to make our model counter FEMA’s model.”
The release of the DFIRMS earlier this year began with a series of public meetings where government officials heard comments from the community.
Though the process is voluntary, the parish is required to adopt the maps to be included in the National Flood Insurance Program. Through the NFIP, the parish receives federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and the Community Development Block Grant program funds.
