March 25
March 25, 2009
Vernal Oliver Sr.
March 27, 2009
The new flood maps issued by the Federal Emergency Manage-ment Agency for Terrebonne arrived in August and parish officials are not liking what they see.
The maps establish elevation requirements for structures that will be used to set insurance rates for homes and businesses participating in FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program, which offers subsidized flood insurance in exchange for communities’ meeting the elevation standards.
The new maps are digital, which makes adding data to them easier and allows residents quicker access.
But officials in Terrebonne are saying the new elevation requirements are too high in many spots and, consequently, they are appealing the maps.
The parish will have 90 days to ask FEMA to delay implementing the maps after they are officially presented to the parish in the Federal Register, which publishes most notices of U.S. government agencies.
FEMA still needs to hold a second public hearing for Terrebonne residents on the new maps. The first was held in February in Houma after being postponed by hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
“Look at the heights, the elevations don’t make sense,” said Windell Curole, interim director of the Terrebonne Levee District. “It’s complicated work, it’s not easy. There’s a chance for errors. If people are going to spend time and money to elevate, we need to make sure it’s right.”
“It’s such a big impact on the parish, we have to make sure they’re accurate,” he said. “So if the maps come on, we’ll know we’re dealing with higher elevations. We need to deal with facts. If we need to deal with a one hundred year storm, then we have to do it.”
“Terrebonne needs to make certain the maps are accurate, not overly zealous,” said Parish President Michel Claudet. “Maybe our elevations are higher than we would like for them to be because of the approach taken post-Katrina.”
Outside study under way
To conduct an independent assessment of FEMA’s elevation requirements, the parish is hiring the Houma engineering firms Shaw Coastal and Morris P. Hebert, as well as retired LSU coastal hydrologist Joseph Suhayda.
The Terrebonne Parish Council allocated $225,000 at its March 11 meeting to pay for the study.
Shaw Coastal has participated in other parishes’ appeals of the new FEMA maps and Morris Hebert has assessed elevations in Terrebonne in the past, Claudet said.
Suhayda has also been involved with successful appeals of the flood maps for other parishes, said Al Levron, capital projects administrator with the Parish Public Works Department. Claudet called Suhayda “the guru for these parishes.”
“FEMA overstated the risk,” Levron said. “We will field verify that data.”
Levron said Suhayda will calculate the way water moves across the terrain of the parish. Different types of vegetation, such as spartina grass or scrub, offer more or less resistance to the flow of water. FEMA did not take into account sufficiently the friction provided by vegetation, according to Levron.
“Topography drives a lot of this,” he said.
A Suhayda subcontractor will run the new data through a computer model to find out the results, which will be submitted to FEMA as part of the appeal.
“It’s a massive effort to find areas,” Levron said. “We hope to get these guys on the ground. That will result in more accurate maps. We hope it will result in lower elevations. We don’t know that yet.”
“The ones from FEMA are extreme,” said Terrebonne Parish Manager Pat Gordon. “We’ll see if the maps can be modified.”
Flood maps have been in effect for many years
The federal government had produced Flood Insurance Rate Maps for Terrebonne before the parish first participated in the National Flood Insurance Program in 1970. Houma joined in 1981.
Terrebonne last adopted flood insurance rate maps in 1985. The maps began being revised in 1993 when FEMA started an extensive program to update its flood maps nationwide. In Louisiana, though, the process was delayed when hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit in 2005.
At the urging of FEMA and the Louisiana Recovery Authority-the agency set up to distribute federal hurricane relief dollars for Katrina and Rita-the Terrebonne Parish Council adopted provisional Advisory Base Flood Elevation maps in 2006
The LRA had linked adoption of the provisional maps to the parish receiving Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds, also administered by FEMA and used mainly to buy out homes and elevate them in flood-prone areas. Former Terrebonne Parish Councilman Harold Lapeyre criticized the LRA for not providing enough funding to raise homes.
“The parish’s objections were that it was onerous to adopt the ABFEs,” Levron said. “An equal concern was that other parishes did not adopt them but got equal treatment.”
“The LRA tied our (federal) grant money to the adoption of higher elevations,” Curole said.
Since hurricanes Katrina and Rita, FEMA has granted Terrebonne Parish residents $53 million for housing expenses. Terrebonne also received $6.5 million in hazard mitigation money since the hurricanes.
Gordon said there are few differences in elevation requirements between the provisional maps and the new digital flood maps for the northern section of Terrebonne because the flood surge model does not extend to the northern part.
However, the southern part of Terrebonne shows two- to four-foot differences between the old and new maps, he said.
“We believe some incorrect data was plugged into the model,” Gordon said. “There are additional information, vegetation, a number of aspects. The data plugged into the model was not updated.”
Possible state role in the appeal of the flood maps
Officials from Terrebonne and Lafourche attended an LRA meeting in November to ask that agency to examine the parishes’ flood maps along with the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, which dispenses money from a state wetlands restoration fund.
Curole, who sits on the CPRA board, chairs a subcommittee overseeing Flood Insurance Rate Maps.
“The LRA and CPRA got together to deal with this,” he said. “They felt it would be better with coastal Louisiana that a state agency should concern itself (with an appeal).”
But currently the two agencies are only providing technical assistance to Terrebonne with the appeal.
“They said they want to get involved, but there is no financial contribution,” Levron said. “We need to proceed. Our timeline is moving. We can’t wait for other agencies. We will work closely with the state but we need to proceed sooner rather than later.”
While Claudet said the LRA and the CPRA will eventually take on the appeal, Gordon disagreed, saying, “The state can’t appeal maps, only parishes.”
Whatever actions the two agencies take, the Terrebonne Parish Council will have to adopt Flood Insurance Rate Maps, revised or not.
Representatives from FEMA’s regional office will go out with Terrebonne’s floodplain administrator (Gordon) and examine structures to ensure compliance with elevation requirements approved by the parish council.
Curole said, “If you want to get in the flood insurance program, you need (the flood maps). If you want federal loans, you need the flood maps. We can’t borrow money if we don’t adopt the flood maps.”
Although low-lying areas in Terrebonne Parish, such as the New Jerusalem Baptist Church on Grand Caillou Road in East Houma, are prone to flood, Parish President Michel Claudet and the parish council take issue with the elevation levels the Federal Emergency Management Agency cites in its proposed digital flood maps. * File photo / Tri-Parish Times
