Tri-parishes among initiative focus areas

Terrebonne, Lafourche and St. Mary parishes are among 12 combined populations reaching from Texas to Florida that will host sessions as Blue Ribbon Resilient Communities: Envisioning the Future of America’s Coast, which is backed by the America’s Wetland Foundation.

Louisiana Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne was among government and business leaders present last Tuesday in Belle Chase to launch an 18-month initiative designed to help Gulf Coast communities develop preparations of resiliency against the threat of storms, rising sea levels and disasters like the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.

According to AWF spokesman John Hill, economic data from a $4.2 million study commissioned by Entergy and AWF demonstrates how the cost of doing nothing could reach approximately $350 billion in losses during the next 20 years if residents of Louisiana along with Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida did nothing to protect themselves.

Hill called the Gulf Coast study a proactive approach to identify areas of vulnerability and initiate measures to “insure a sustainable future.”

“Louisiana and the entire Gulf Coast offers tremendous benefits to the nation – its seafood, offshore energy, critical navigational routes, tourism and incomparable wildlife and marine habitats,” Dardenne said. “The Blue Ribbon Resilient Communities project gives weight to the gravity of long-term consequences to those national assets if we don’t act soon. Most importantly it gives our communities the opportunity to be part of charting our own destiny as we face risks that can impact our unique culture and way of life.”

Hill said that the BRRC initiative is deigned to identify and sustain economic and cultural values of Gulf Coast communities, reduce risks associated with natural and manmade disasters, provide communities with tools to assist them in making plans with realistic timelines, and empower communities to take decisive action to ensure a sustainable and prosperous future.

During the next 18 months, the AWF will compile information and recommendations from individual communities so specific plans of action can be established.

“For us to develop resiliency in our community will take cooperation by local state and national governments,” Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet said.

According to Claudet, Terrebonne residents have already shown themselves to be resilient as they live in what he called “ground zero” of Louisiana’s coastal erosion crisis.

It is a matter of doing for ourselves what federal funding has failed to do, according to AWF board member and Houma lawyer Berwick Duval.

“The driving force of thinking behind this initiative is that we seem to be stuck waiting for the federal government to hear our pleas and help us with money. That hasn’t been forthcoming. We have some great plans. The state has done some wonderful things with master plans, but there is no way to fund them,” Duval said.

According to AWF members, coastal residents could wait forever for the federal government to come to their rescue. Duval noted failures in the Bush and Obama administrations regarding help for the Gulf Coast. “With the budget crisis we are in, it is not looking good,” he said.

One of many options the AWF is looking toward is encouraging private industry to invest in their communities and the Gulf region as well. “It is doing for ourselves. [That way] we have some say so in the matter. America’s Wetlands goal is to provide a venue for that to happen,” Duval said.

Backers of this program said that conversations about coastal problems might not be pleasant, but that locals talking among themselves about what they can do to advance from dependency upon government funding is essential.

“We’re not saying we are giving up on federal funding, but for whatever reasons funding has not been a national priority. So, let’s talk about it among ourselves. Where does that leave us? What are we going to do? Let’s draw up our own plan,” Duval said. “The goal is to include business as well as government and everybody.”

In addition to the Tri-parish region, BRRC communities include Lake Charles; Plaquemines and Iberia parishes; New Orleans; Houston; Biloxi, Miss.; Gulfport, Miss.; Bay St. Louis, Miss.; Galveston, Texas; Mobile, Ala.; Orange Beach, Ala.; and the state of Florida. Specific dates for public meetings in each of these areas have yet to be announced.

Louisiana Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne was on hand to announce the launching of an 18-month initiative aimed at shoring up America’s Energy Coast last Tuesday in Belle Chasse. JOHN HILL