[StBernard] A united approach

[Westley Annis]

Deborah,
 
Well said.  The one consistent message in Washington is that we need our
fair share of the oil revenues-  this is something we have been pushing and
our delegation is fighting for this one big time.
 
Thanks for the input.
 
Craig 
 
-----Original Message-----

It was great to see the leadership of all Southeast LA parishes presenting a
united front to Congress this week regarding the additional $6 million need
to bring the levees up to current design levels. The last thing we should
see, right before we turn out the lights in the N.O. metro area, would be
one or more parishes lobbying on the side for their money by saying another
parish isn't worthy.  
Craig is so right that we have to stand
together as we have the future of our region and our state in the hands of
Congress. Without "certified"
levees for current project hurricane, FEMA is saying there is no levee
protection, which cuts us all out of the flood insurance program and the
exodus will begin.

A little background here on how we got to this mess. The COE and various
levee boards and LADOTD files will show that since the inception of the Lake
Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project which started after
Betsy, the plan was to keep building the levees up higher, monitor how they
settle which is unavoidable, and come back for another lift, as the
engineers call it. 
It's not like they weren't surveying the levees for the past 30- something
years. Many levee lift projects were funded and built in the area, including
St. Bernard. But it would be interesting to see in the past 15 years or so,
how much money Congress was asked to authorize for this purpose and how much
Congress actually appropriated. We  know now that it wasn't enough because
the necessary lifts over the years weren't done such that some areas are
anywhere  from a few feet to several feet deficient. However, it was
acceptable apparently to the Corps,  and to all the levee districts, DOTD,
etc. that the levee lift projects would go on until
2013  and maybe never stop if settling
continued. I guess they hoped that we could hang on until one day there was
enough money to do all the levee lifts. That day of reckoning is here,
folks.

But, eEveryone needs to realize that lifting levees will never be finished.
It's an ongoing project unless you are building on bedrock.

Once we get past this hurdle, and it is a milestone in our region's history,
we need to focus on a direct source of continual financing of levee lifting
that is an annual appropriation, not a wait until there is a crisis and beg
Congress approach. Our elected officials need to convince Congress that
giving us our rightful share of the oil and gas revenue from offshore
drilling will do that and they are trying that now.

The old saying is give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but give him
a pole and he feeds himself for life.  Once we past this crisis, we need
Congress to give us the damn pole and we'll protect ourselves, but don't
keep making us beg for the fish.  That may work for interstate highway
projects and other public works projects of the federal govt., but not
levee/flood protection because there will always be a higher priority in
Congress or more influential Congressmen mustering more votes than ours can.
Not getting a piece of interstate highway is not the same as not getting
money to keep the levees at the right heights.

Deborah Keller