[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish Council disagrees with FEMA's elevation advisories

[Westley Annis]

Oh Westley, you would have made a good bureaucrat!
 
If I understand completely, if we are damaged less than 50%, we should not have to elevate or anything correct?  Might not get the LRA money but shouldn't have to elevate, correct or not?
 
JLY


 

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	Section 9.1 of the Housing Action Plan, Amended - Dated 3 May 06 has the following paragraph:
	
	The LRA has passed resolutions tying benefits and funding for communities and
	parishes to the adoption of the most up-to-date flood guidance as part of their floodplain
	management ordinances. The LRA has said it will only provide HMGP and CDBG
	funding in those parishes that adhere to the State’s new building codes and adopt and
	enforce FEMA’s Base Flood Elevation guidance in the construction or reconstruction of
	all homes, businesses, and other structures in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and
	
	The FEMA Advisory for St. Bernard contains this paragraph:
	
	FEMA recommends the following: new construction and substantially damaged homes and businesses within a designated FEMA floodplain should be elevated to either the Base Flood Elevation (BFE) shown on the current effective Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) or at least 3 feet above the highest adjacent existing ground elevation at the building site, whichever is higher; and new construction and substantially damaged homes and businesses not located in a designated FEMA floodplain should be elevated at least 3 feet above the highest adjacent existing ground elevation at the building site.
	
	Now you can put on your lawyer hat.
	
	The LRA says parishes must adopt FEMA's Base Flood Elevation Guidance. "Guidance" is the key word here.
	
	The FEMA document is titled "FEMA Advisory". It does have the text "Flood Recovery Guidance" as a nice title at the top of the first page, but right below it says "ADVISORY Base Flood Elevations for St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana".
	
	This document is an advisory only. At best, it is a "recovery" guidance and not the Base Flood Elevation guidance that the LRA is look for.
	
	Now, we could argue this back and forth until we're blue in the face. Personally, I don't FEMA has yet issued the guidance that the LRA is looking for. However, if the LRA says the advisory is what they want, then the council needs to just go ahead and accept that so that residents can partake of the Road Home program and the hell with fighting it for the "principle" of the matter.
	
	The council does need to remember the corollary to the Golden Rule: He who has the money also makes the rules.
	
	Westley