Louisiana: Corps of Engineers Recommends Raising Levees in Local Parishes

Some sections of levee in the New Orleans area require little or no height adjustments, while other sections must be raised by as much as eight feet to satisfy the Army Corps of Engineers that the structures will withstand the next hurricane of the century, a corps official reported to the state's flood protection panel Monday.

Dan Hitchings, civilian director of the corps' Task Force Hope, told the governor's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority that since Hurricane Katrina, the federal agency has changed its reckoning of the height and strength of levees needed to certify that they can survive a so-called 100-year storm surge.

Without the improvements to meet that certification, the federal government, and its critical flood insurance program, will assume that much of the region has no storm levees at all.

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The Corps of Engineers says levees in local parishes will have to be raised as much as 8 feet to avoid big changes in flood maps

Source: The Times-Picayune

Posted: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 12:00:00 AM. Modified: Thursday, July 06, 2006 9:40:32 AM.

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