Levee Board leading work at rapid speed
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Is it possible for one woman to affect such positive change for a community that it could protect thousands of homes for years to come?
While St. Tammany Levee Board Chairman Suzanne Krieger would greatly disagree about deserving that much credit, since she has had a team of supporters working with her, the latest news about the effort to get billions of dollars from the federal government for St. Tammany Parish flood control has now taken one giant step forward.
Krieger reported this week that she received a form in the mail from U.S. Rep. John Kennedy that would add St. Tammany to a 2024 congressional budget bill that could bring $4.45 billion to the North Shore for flood protection.
Ever since Hurricane Katrina, when Krieger personally had her home flooded with 8-feet of water out on Old Spanish Trail towards the Rigolets, the lifelong Slidell businesswoman and former Louisiana representative has made it her mission to finally bring big money to St. Tammany for flood protection.
Four years ago, Krieger took the lead on the St. Tammany Levee Board and has organized experts, that went to Washington to talk to Louisiana congressional leaders, and been the squeaky wheel at the state and federal level that brought millions of dollars here to get the process moving.
Krieger now believes that as early as next spring there could be a positive “yes” from the Army Corps of Engineers director to approve the $4.45 billion for St. Tammany, mainly to protect the parish from Slidell to Mandeville.
Krieger has been so determined to get this done for the parish that she broke down in tears when discussing the latest good news.
“I really think we are about to get this,” she said, wiping tears away. “I’m so excited to see that we have done this in only four years, and we could see work begin here within six years. Other parishes have taken 20 years to ever get this kind of money.”
The key to the success is the early work by the Levee Board that has brought over $55 million of state and local funding to St. Tammany for flood risk reduction efforts. Those dollars were critical to ever be considered for the billions of dollars from the feds because expensive studies had to be done, reviewing everything from environmental considerations, having engineering studies completed, and for cost-benefit ratio analysis.
The cost-benefit study may have been the real key for Congress to consider St. Tammany after it showed the Slidell, Eden Isles and Pearl River areas would cost the federal government $845 million in repairs from flooding if another storm like Hurricane Katrina came through here.
That study also showed that the Mandeville area would receive another $234 million in damage should a Katrina level storm hit here again.
“It’s all about the cost-benefit ratio,” Krieger explained. “If they see that spending $4.45 billion here would save the federal government two or three times that amount in the future because they wouldn’t be paying for flooding damage, then it is considered a good investment.
“And right now, our study proved that,” she added.
While Krieger has gotten high praise as the leader of the Levee Board, she will be the first to admit she could never have gotten this far on her own. Along with the other members of the Levee Board working on the plan as well, Parish President Mike Cooper was among many experts and public officials who have accompanied her to Washington, D.C. to lobby the Louisiana delegation for their support.
“It all started four years ago in Washington when we took a delegation there and began asking for comprehensive flood protection,” Krieger said. “We talked to Scalise, Kennedy, Cassidy and others in Congress, and they have been on board pushing this for us.”
The feds certainly had to agree that the North Shore area deserved attention after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 left over 48,000 residential structures damaged, causing $1.45 billion in damages.
The current plan for the $4.45 billion would include:
–Non-structural measures: Elevating and floodproofing for over 6,400 residential and non-residential structures across the parish.
–Mile Branch Channel Improvements—2.2 miles of channel improvements along the lower reaches of Mile Branch (to facilitate greatly improved drainage from heavy rainfalls.)
–South Slidell and West Slidell Levee and Floodwall system. Structural protection consisting of 18.5 miles of levee, floodwalls, pump stations and gate structures.
The levee is where the most protection would come from for future tropical weather. The millions of dollars in studies, engineering and consultant advice have led to a current decision for the levee to run from the eastern side of Slidell, starting in the Rigolets area, heading west past Lacombe.
Krieger said there are still differences about exactly where the levee would pass, since the present layout shows it leaving out a large area around Eden Isles, Lakeshore Estates and the new D.R. Horton subdivision.
“I have been told that even though there is a levee currently decided on, we can later get changes in where it will go, and I still believe we need to adjust it in some ways,” she said. “Everything that is projected right now comes from the cost-benefit ratio, so we need to show that it will be worth their while to change the levee in some areas.”
Krieger said there is another large amount of money St. Tammany is seeking a portion of and that is $420 million from the state.
“We are in the running for some of the state master plan money and that could help us do things to protect some areas that might end up outside of the levee,” she explained.
The St. Tammany Levee Board held its regular meeting this past Wednesday where they are still getting input from the public. The comment period for the current plan is still open until September 6. You can go to the Levee Board website to make comments.
St. Tammany Parish has also come up with money for the overall flood control work, having dedicated over $25 million of bonded parish GOMESA (Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act) money for coastal restoration and resilience projects. The parish also put in over $9.9 million through the parish’s capital outlay for flood risk reduction levee segments in south Slidell.e