Flood walls may get OK

Published 12:00 am Friday, January 7, 2011

By HOLLY LELEUX-THUBRON
THE DAILY IBERIAN

Flood walls likely will be an acceptable method of flood hazard mitigation, District 13 Councilman Larry Richard said.

The Iberia Parish Council, with its consultant, Providence Engineering, has been finalizing guidelines for its recovery program for residents who sustained flood damage to their homes from hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Mike Tizano, recovery program consultant, said in December that flood walls are not considered by the federal government to be foundation reconstruction and therefore they would not qualify for the program. Richard and District 10 Councilman Roger Duncan pledged to fight that decision because the construction of flood walls could be a more cost-effective options for residents.

District 5 Councilman Troy Comeaux said speaking from his construction experience, flood walls, at least the ones he saw already constructed in Iberia Parish, “are absolutely foundation reconstruction.”

Richard, Duncan and the parish administration brought in state officials who made the initial determination about the walls to see them for themselves. It appears the argument presented to those officials was compelling enough. 

“Flood walls will be acceptable,” Richard said. “They (state officials) told us we just need to put them in our guidelines that we adopt.”

Iberia Parish President Ernest Freyou cautioned the council about jumping the gun on the development.

“It still has to be approved a little higher up the ladder,” Freyou said.

“We’ve fought this far for them. We’ll fight the people higher up,” Duncan said.

Flood walls could be built for a fraction of the price it costs to elevate homes — in the neighborhood of $25,000 depending on the size of the house.

Council members expect the inclusion of flood walls to be able to help more people with the $6 million in hurricane recovery money on its way for mitigation purposes. The walls will be eligible for both the reconstruction program and the compensation program after final approval by the state.

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