[StBernard] Council seeks clarity on rebuilding

[Westley Annis]

Craig:  It might be worth watching what happens with N.O. and how they
possibly get around the 3 ft. elevation requirement.  Or, perhaps the parish
could get their own "expert" to refute the "logic" of FEMA's requirement.
 
Jim York
 

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Council seeks clarity on rebuilding
Mixed messages sent on role of flood maps 
Friday, July 07, 2006
By Michelle Krupa
Staff writer 

The New Orleans City Council on Thursday asked the Louisiana Recovery
Authority and FEMA for hard and fast deadlines on when it must adopt federal
advisory flood maps, as well as for clarification of how its vote would
affect homeowners' ability to buy flood insurance and receive federal
rebuilding grants. 

 
The request, directed to the council's planning and housing consultants, was
another nudge in the ongoing scrap between city, state and federal officials
over how the flow of federal aid through the LRA's Road Home program could
be hampered if local governments refuse to fold the "advisory base flood
elevation" maps into their building codes. 

"This is a lack of cohesiveness" between the advisory maps and the LRA,
Councilman-at-large Arnie Fielkow said. 

No LRA official was present at the council session. But Andy Kopplin, the
LRA's executive director, said Thursday that the agency, in charge of
steering the state's rebuilding effort, has not demanded action from the
council nor set a deadline for any vote. Kopplin, who attended a meeting of
the LRA board in New Orleans, said however that the LRA would like to get a
nod from the council and encourage homeowners to follow the new rules. 

For now, Kopplin said, compliance by the city or homeowners is not a
prerequisite for Road Home grants to flow to New Orleans, though the LRA may
eventually set a deadline for the council to take up the issue. 

Illustrating perhaps how intricate and politically fragile the issue has
become, an LRA official who has been touring hurricane-ravaged parishes to
explain the advisories and the Road Home program was more emphatic in a
phone interview Thursday. 

Paul Rainwater, the LRA's director of hazard mitigation and
intergovernmental affairs, pointed to a resolution the authority passed in
December that he said requires parishes and municipalities to embrace the
advisories or face exclusion from the Road Home program, which will offer
owners of flood-ruined properties as much as $150,000 to cover uninsured
losses. 

"Communities that don't adopt the advisory guidelines make their citizens
ineligible for the federal hazard mitigation monies, and we've been telling
communities that," Rainwater said. "The LRA resolution, as it stands, does
not allow the community to receive the funds until they adopt the
advisories. 

"I would hope that they would adopt the advisories no later than by the end
of July or early August," he added. 

Rainwater said that the LRA's motive is not to strong-arm local governments
but to retain the faith of federal officials who helped steer some $10.6
billion into the Road Home program. 

"Chairman (Donald) Powell's office was very clear, and so were members of
Congress, that we have to build higher to be safer," he said. "That was the
rationale. We want people to rebuild so that they're safe from future
floods." 


City seeking changes 

City officials have said it is unfair for FEMA to force residents to abide
by the advisories, which recommend that all homes in Orleans Parish be built
to the base flood elevation set by 1984 flood maps or to 3 feet above the
ground, whichever is higher. The base flood elevation is the height at which
properties have a 1 percent chance of flooding from a rain event in any
given year. It is not designed to prevent flooding from catastrophic levee
breaches of the type experienced during Hurricane Katrina. 

Nonresidential property in New Orleans could remain at its current elevation
if it is "flood-proofed," Alfredo Sanchez, an architect and planner working
for the council, said Thursday. Also grandfathered in would be homeowners
whose properties were not more than 50 percent damaged and those with more
badly damaged homes who got construction permits before the new rules are
enacted, if the council so chooses. 

However, Councilwomen Shelly Midura and Stacy Head, whose districts include
hundreds of homes that are outside the floodplain and that did not flood
during Katrina, said those homeowners should not be forced to raise their
homes in order to restore properties that were substantially damaged by
strong winds. 

The issue also is relevant in eastern New Orleans, where dozens of homes
along Lake Pontchartrain were untouched by storm surge flooding but
sustained significant wind damage, Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell said. 

Head said the 3-foot requirement also could pose a hardship for residents
who want to rehabilitate blighted houses outside the floodplain. Spending
extra money to raise a decaying house could make the entire project
cost-prohibitive, she said. 


LRA open to proposals 

Kopplin said Thursday that local governments are welcome to present the LRA
with revisions to FEMA's advisory maps, along with scientific evidence
showing that the changes would not pose a threat to people or property in
the city. 

Some council members suggested pursuing negotiations with state and federal
leaders to tweak the advisories before adopting them as city law. But
Council President Oliver Thomas warned that any diversion from the demands
of the LRA, if the agency ultimately insists on the city adopting the flood
advisories as proposed, could threaten homeowners' rebuilding grants. 

"At the end of the day, the LRA has the funds . . . and if our requirements
and policies don't meet their requirements and policies, we could quite
literally be cutting people off," he said. 

Council members also asked Sanchez and Miami-based housing consultant Paul
Lambert to come up with a clear, comprehensive outline -- possibly a flow
chart -- to help owners of hurricane-wrecked properties understand the
advisory maps, along with the complex and befuddling web of government
resources available to aid rebuilding. 

"If I were Joe Q. Citizen, how would I ascertain whether I had to raise my
house?" Hedge-Morrell asked, noting that she spent two hours on the Internet
on Saturday trying to navigate the state and federal procedures involved in
the rebuilding process. 

"It becomes something that an architect or an engineer can understand but
not something that an average citizen can understand," she said. 

Added Thomas: "Right now, there's so much confusion, it's literally killing
people. We want a document to tell people what they need to do on their
block." 

. . . . . . . 

Coleman Warner contributed to this report. Michelle Krupa can be reached at
mkrupa at timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3312.