[StBernard] St. Bernard divided on MR-GO plan

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard divided on MR-GO plan
Some want protection from Category 5's 
Saturday, December 17, 2005
By Karen Turni Bazile
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau 
Officials and residents in St. Bernard Parish were divided in their
reactions Friday to the Bush administration's plan to add concrete and stone
armoring as a way to fortify the levees of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet
to better protect the area from hurricanes. 

The plan announced Thursday by Donald Powell, the top federal official for
Hurricane Katrina reconstruction, would double federal levee spending in the
metro area with an administration request for an additional $1.5 billion to
build new pumping stations, improve vulnerable levees with concrete armor
and fast-track completion of a long-promised hurricane protection system for
the entire metropolitan area. 

But while the plan would protect some areas from catastrophic flooding from
a storm like Katrina in the future, officials acknowledged that storms as
powerful as Katrina would likely still flood eastern New Orleans and St.
Bernard Parish. 

On Friday, that didn't sit well in the gutted-out shell of the government
building in Chalmette, among the 40,000 structures flooded in St. Bernard
Parish. 

"I think it's another (example) of St. Bernard being second, but this time
the Lower Nine and New Orleans East is thrown in with us," St. Bernard
Parish Council Chairman Joey DiFatta said. "It is so disparaging that they
would protect the inner city and cut us out intentionally. I think now is
the time for St. Bernard, New Orleans East, and the Lower Nine to march on
Washington, the president and Congress and tell them we are citizens of
America and we demand the same treatment they give the other citizens of
America." 

St. Bernard officials have long pleaded with the federal government to
protect the parish from flooding from the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet,
which was dug by the Corps of Engineers in the mid-1960s as a shortcut from
the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. Spurred by criticism that the
MR-GO was largely responsible for catastrophic flooding in the area,
Congress recently suspended funding for dredging for a year. 

Parish officials also want the MR-GO levee raised. 

But while the Bush plan would not add any height to the levee above its
mandated 17½ feet, the work promises to rebuild the levee to that height,
filling in areas that have subsided over the years or been damaged by
Katrina. 

And Bob Turner, executive director of the Lake Borgne Basin Levee District,
thinks the concrete armoring will be an important step toward fortifying the
now-earthen levee against even less catastrophic storms. 

Turner said Katrina's wall of water, more than 20 feet high, came straight
at homes when a 6-mile stretch of the levee was washed out after being
overtopped. 

"If the levees would have been armored, then the storm surge probably would
have not washed them away," Turner said. "To me, intuitively, if you would
have been able to hold the water at the levee, that would have meant there
would have been a much smaller amount of water coming into the parish. We
would have still gotten flooded but it wouldn't have been the entire
parish." 

Also, Turner said the plan is encouraging because it calls for the parish to
get something it never really had -- a true Category 3 levee built to at
least 17½ feet. Turner said the levee is 1½ to 2 feet lower than it was
designed to be in several significant stretches. 

Parish Councilman Craig Taffaro agrees the plan will be an improvement over
what the parish has. 

"I think it will bring some people back," Taffaro said of displaced
residents, for whom levee protection is a huge factor in rebuilding. "We
thought we had something that we didn't really have. If this means it will
be built like it is supposed to be built, I feel a little better." 

But Councilwoman Judy Hoffmeister isn't so sure. 

"It's good, but I'm not sure if that's the answer," Hoffmeister said. "I am
not satisfied with anything less than a Category 5 levee. I think that's a
decision-breaker for people wanting to return to the parish." 

Angela Geraci of Hopedale said there's no way she would ever move back to
her bayou fishing community outside the levee system. Only a few bricks
remain of her home there. But she said she would consider building on a lot
she owns in Kenilworth if the government built levees to protect the parish
from a Category 5 storm. 

"You pay taxes all of your life," Geraci said. "Heck, they can send people
to the moon, but they can't fix the levees? . . . Category 3 levees are not
going to cut it. That's a waste of money." 

Cindy Nuccio of Chalmette agreed that Category 5 levees are the key. 

"I am 57 years old, and I have to start over somewhere else with nothing,"
she said. "If they can make it right, I'll come back. This is home." 

. . . . . . . 


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